Leeds City Council has apologised for allowing enforcement action against the owner of a much-loved former community cricket pitch to “drift”.
An independent report by the Local Government Ombudsman said the council had “failed to actively pursue” improvements to the old Highbury Cricket Club ground in Meanwood, on occasions between 2018 and 2022.
It followed complaints about the condition of the land, which a community group has been desperately trying to restore to public use for several years.
The ground, off Stone Mill Lane, ceased being used for cricket in 2004, having been part of the Highbury Works Tannery which closed in the 1990s.
The Ombudman’s report said that the council failed to take any action over the “untidy land” and “dilapidated” old tannery building between February and August 2019, having opened an enforcement case the previous year.
It was also critical of the fact the authority did not visit the site between the end of the first Covid lockdown and April 2021.
The local authority blamed the pandemic for the delay, but the Ombudsman said social distancing guidelines would have allowed a visit to the outdoor site during that period.
The report said: “I am therefore not persuaded by the council’s position that it was unable to conduct a site visit due to the COVID-19 pandemic until April 2021.
“The council has not shown evidence of it actively pursuing the case from April 2021 onwards.
“I note its comments that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on its workload but based on the information provided, I consider the council allowed this case to drift and that the failure to actively pursue it amounts to service failure.”
The council closed its enforcement case against the owner in February this year after the requested improvements had been made to the site.
The Ombudsman’s investigation was triggered by a complaint against the council from a member of the public, to whom the authority was told to apologise.
Responding to the report, a spokesperson for the council said it: “We accept and understand the findings in this case, the issues that caused delays with this case, for example staffing issues due to the pandemic, have since been resolved and an apology has been issued to the complainant.”
The site’s owner had once tried to convert the site into a dog daycare centre, but that proposal was rejected by the council in 2019. The decision was later upheld by the government on appeal.
A clause in a 1997 agreement dictates that the site’s cricket pitch must not be used for anything else other than cricket, effectively preventing further development.
The landowner asked the council for this clause to be axed earlier this year, but the local authority rejected the request.
