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Mansfield Road residents claimed they were left in the dark as Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council approved a planning application submitted by London Street Properties to build five new houses.
Although the council maintains that they sent the letters on November 3, 2021, residents say they have not received these notifications.
The residents became aware of the plans only when the builder put in a new application in 2022 to modify the buildings.
Ward councillor Gary Watts, who said he is “pretty disgusted” about the development, added that the planning officers are blaming Royal Mail for not delivering the 44 letters they sent.
“In 2018, there was planning permission granted for three homes at this site, which were approved. And then in November 2021, the applicant put in a new application to build five homes. But the residents never got any letters about this application,” Cllr Watts said.
“We, councillors, get involved in planning applications only when residents contact us. Nobody contacted us about this because they didn’t get any letters. And the council passed it.”
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Cllr Watts said he questioned the planning officers about this, but he was told they did send the letters, but “Royal Mail must have lost them”.
“How can the Royal Mail lose 40 letters? One or two, maybe, but definitely not 40 letters,” Cllr Watts said.
“I think it’s a bit of a whitewash. And we heard a couple of months back about how the council failed to send letters about planning applications.”
In January this year, the council apologised to Basingstoke residents after finding that the officers failed to send letters to residents for 83 planning applications between late summer and December 2022 due to an “administrative error”.
The Mansfield Road application was made before this period.
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Diane Hall, a resident spearheading the objections to Mansfield Road development, said the neighbours were “left in the dark” as the council gave permission for five new houses.
She said: “As it stands the residents have not been offered a 21-day neighbour consultation period nor a legal review was undertaken for the failures they experienced.
“But despite objections from the South Ham ward councillors and enough objections from residents for the planning application to go to committee, planners decided to commence with the development.
“None of the residents’ objections have been discussed or considered. Residents are currently living with the consequences, as the development progresses, despite valid objections – boundaries causing loss of light and overshadowing, overlooking and loss of privacy, visual amenity, traffic generation and noise, disturbance resulting in use and the layout and density of buildings being crammed.
“Residents who have lived in neighbouring properties for more than 30 years have had their rights to be heard bulldozed.
“Basingstoke belongs to its residents, not just the bodies who govern, and as such residents’ concerns should be respected.”
The council’s planning and development manager Mike Townsend said: “We were contacted last year relating to this planning application where we confirmed that the application file recorded that 40 neighbourhood notification letters were issued on 3 November 2021 to surrounding properties advising of the application.
“In addition, a site notice was placed at the site. One objection was received to the planning application and planning permission was issued on 17 February 2022. One ward councillor did not receive a letter as a result of an administrative error and this matter has been discussed directly with them.”
