Council faces hefty legal bill after trying to protect private music venue at The Stables in Milton Keynes

The Stables at Wavendon, founded by world-renowned jazz musicians Sir John Dankworth and Dame Cleo Laine, had spent more than a year worrying about plans to build more than 130 new homes on its doorstep.

They were concerned that residents would complain about the noise and place The Stables' future in jeopardy.

MK Council granted the Abbey Homes application, but imposed a 'deed of easement' that would mean the new residents would have to be told of the possibility of noise from the Stables - thus taking away any rights to complain.

Unhappy Abbey homes appealed against the condition and an expensive appeal was held by an Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

Barristers were used by both Abbey Home and MK Council, and each party submitted hundreds of pages of legal documents.

Last month it was announced the council had lost the appeal. See the Citizen story here .

The inspector said: “There is simply no basis to conclude, as feared by many local residents, that the lack of a deed would place the future operation of The Stables in jeopardy.”

He said because the council’s development control committee had already given permission for the new homes, it was wrong to impose a brand new condition. And it could have made the homes on the site unsellable if everyone living there were told that they would have to put up with noise.

The inspector said a deed of easement could have been appropriate but it should have been considered when the council agreed to the principle of planning permission in the first place. To try to impose it at the reserved matters stage – when the details of planning applications are filled in – was too late, he said.

The Inspector ordered MK Council pay Abbey Homes' legal expenses, saying the application for costs was “one of the most straightforward I have seen”.

This week opposition Tory councillors in MK have slammed The Stables saga as "yet another damning verdict of MKC’s planning service."

And the Inspector's decision puts into question the competence of planning officers at the council, they said.

Their outburst comes after the city's two Tory MPs, Ben Everrit and Iain Stewart, last month wrote to the government demanding an inspection into the entire planning department at MK Council following "deeply concerning" allegations about its performance.

The planning department has also been reported to police by residents claiming “misconduct in the public office” took place in respect of a controversial warehouse development in Blakelands.

Police has issued residents with a crime reference number but are still deciding whether or not to investigate.

Tory leader Alex Walker slammed the council's loss of The Stables appeal as "yet another scandal" involving the planning department,

He said the department has also been "found wanting" in its dealing application to convert offices at Station House, above CMK rail station, to 200 new flats.

"The Council’s chaotic approach to planning is being exposed and it is shocking that they can move from one disaster to the next without any Labour or Liberal Democrat Councillors speaking up for residents whose lives have been ruined by failures within their planning service.

Cllr Walker added: "We are working hard to get the Council’s planning department fit and proper but there is only so much we can do while Labour and the Liberal Democrats sit on their hands and hope it goes away.”