SELBY District Council has responded to a criticism by the Local Government Ombudsman over its handling of a planning application.

A report by the LGO said the authority refused to comply with recommendations it made in a previous report, asking the council to apologise to a couple after officers failed to deal properly with a planning application.

The couple's objections over extension plans to a neighbouring property wer left out of a planning officer's report and permission was granted.

The LGO recommended the council apologise, pay the couple £1,896 for their planning consultant's fees, and £250 as a 'time and trouble' payment, but the authority refused to pay the consultant's costs.

A council spokeswoman said: "We disagreed with the original ombudsman's recommendation and the council resolved that the remedy was unreasonable and declined to implement it. We’ve received the updated report and will consider carefully what the ombudsman has said before responding formally.

"We strive to deliver a first class planning service. It’s a complex area of legislation with many different considerations when determining applications. We are confident that we made the right decision in this case and the ombudsman has accepted that to be the case. We will ensure that the ombudsman's report is made available for public inspection and the council will issue its response once we have considered the report in detail."