ROSSENDALE Council has been criticised by a government Ombudsman over planning delays and told to pay £2,500 compensation to The Hurstwood Group.

In a report released today, Local Government Ombudsman Anne Seex found the council guilty of "maladministration" and criticises officers for taking up to seven years to take action on planning applications.

Ms Seex carried out an investigation following complaints by developers about council delays in finalising Section 106 agreements, under which developers must provide some benefit for the community in return for an approved application.

The agreements must be completed before work can go ahead.

In 1997 Rossendale-based developers Hurst-wood applied to build 31 homes off Lower Cribden Avenue, Rawtenstall, which the council development control committee approved, subject to a Section 106.

But in 2004 a consultant working for Hurstwood spent months chasing the council for final details of the Section 106, so that building work could start.

The report details the repeated attempts made by the company from February 2004 to June 2005 to get the agreement completed, only for the application to be refused in July this year, under new guides in the Lanc-ashire Structure Plan.

In her report, Ms Seex concluded that "the council provided the consultant and developer with misleading inform-ation", indicating that the Section 106 would be dealt with and finalised.

It added: "This did not occur and the reasons for the delay were not conveyed in an open and timely manner. This is maladministration."

She recommended the council pay £2,500 to Hurstwood to compensate for paying a professional advisor to pursue the issue for so long.

But she disagreed with the Hurstwood that it should be compensated for loss of business revenue, pointing out that bosses could have made an earlier appeal to the Secretary of State about the issue.

The Ombudsman also recommended the council introduced a procedure to make sure applications are monitored and acted upon as soon as possible, adding that the council needed to be proactive in resolving the issue.

In the second case covered in the report, an application was put in to extend and convert a Stubbins mill into 25 apartments.

Approval was given, subject to a Section 106, in February 2005. Although all the issues relating to the legal agreement were resolved by May 2005, the council did not complete it, and the plans were not given the final go-ahead until July 2006.

Due to the shorter timescale however, no compensation was recommended for the developer.

The Hurstwood Group declined to comment until a final decision has been made on the application which has been resubmitted.