Hangar Homes chief taking action after '˜unfair' council treatment

Peter Day's Hangar Homes scheme was grounded by Gosport Borough Council earlier this year '“ but Mr Day is unhappy with how the application was handled in two separate meetings.

Mr Day's scheme would have created five hangar homes at Daedalus Airfield, combining business with leisure and aviation.

At the first meeting, councillors voted against refusing the application, postponing the decision until the next meeting.

Following the local elections in May, a different group of councillors sat on the board, and refused the application.

Mr Day has now sent a formal complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) claiming that he was treated '˜unfairly' '“ but the council is adamant that all procedures were carried out correctly.

He said: '˜At the second meeting there were five new councillors and we weren't allowed to speak to them at the meeting, so they made a decision based on inadequate information.

'˜I don't blame the councillors but I do have a problem with the planning department '“ they have been a problem right from the word go.

'˜I think it was rather narrow-minded to refuse it '“ and I think the bottom line is that they just didn't want this at the airfield.'

Minutes published from the meeting by the council show that Mr Day was in fact given time to speak to the new councillors.

Cllr Tony Jessop, chairman of the regulatory board, said: '˜The matter was a procedural issue and we were advised by our lawyers on it.

'˜As far as it being different councillors, that can happen with any application and they are all trained to deal with these issues.

'˜Mr Day was given five minutes to speak, which everyone is entitled to.

'˜This was a decision made on the officers' additional advice because the application changed '“ they were concerned that we hadn't based our decision on all the facts.'