A COUNCIL has been ordered to pay compensation after a man claimed he was ‘gazumped’ by a building officer following an official site visit.

The man was buying some land when he contacted the Durham County Council building control officer to ask for advice on regulations.

Later, the officer, who has not been named, made an official visit – and was asked by the owner if he wanted to buy the plot.

He made a higher offer than the first man, which was accepted - but he failed to tell his manager he was continuing to act as building control officer on land in which he had a financial and personal interest.

A month later, he submitted a planning application – but still did not tell his manager, or withdraw from his professional involvement.

The original buyer complained, but was not contacted to check he had submitted all the information he wanted considered.

The officer then made “unfounded allegation and inappropriate comments” about the original buyer, the Local Government Ombudsman said, and the man had no opportunity to respond.

An internal investigation ended with a 30-minute meeting between the officer and his manager.

No notes were taken, but the manager decided there had been no breach of the council’s code of conduct – despite the officer admitting he had acted as building control officer for eight weeks after his offer had been accepted, in direct breach of the code.

Dr Jane Martin, the Local Government Ombudsman, said: “People’s trust in public services is damaged when agreed codes of conduct are not followed.

“This trust is further eroded if allegations are not investigated in an open, transparent and effective manner. Durham council now needs to learn from my report and ensure that complaints of misconduct are acted upon in an appropriate way.”

The Ombudsman ordered the council to review how it investigates complaints of serious misconduct, apologise to the original buyer and pay him £250, which he has decided to give to charity.

Stuart Timmiss, the council’s head of planning and assets, said: “I would like to reassure everyone that we have very high expectations of the standards and practices our officers work to and that we are really sad that evidence suggests they were not met in this instance.

“Ahead of receiving the Ombudsman’s report we apologised to the gentleman and have started to review the issues raised.

“In addition we are rolling out an education programme reminding staff of the policies and practices in place and of our expectations regarding them. We take on board the Ombudsman’s comments and we are confident that together, these actions will serve to prevent any similar instances.”