A planning consultancy based in Solihull has been named as the source of a typing error that led to a change in council procedure more than 100 miles away in Bristol.
Anjum Design, run by director Anjum Mehmood, submitted a planning application on behalf of a care provider seeking to convert a house in the Brislington area of Bristol into a children’s home. The supporting planning statement, however, mistakenly referred to staff being employed from “Birmingham” rather than “Bristol.”
The error was significant enough that Bristol City Council officers believed the application had originated from Birmingham City Council, England’s largest local authority. It prompted discussion at a recent meeting of Bristol’s children & young people policy committee, with members raising concerns about oversight of children’s home applications. As a result, the council has introduced a new internal process requiring its planning department to notify the children & families department whenever an application for a children’s home is received.
Brislington West councillor Andrew Varney told the committee that local representatives needed better visibility of such applications so they could raise concerns where necessary, while committee chair Christine Townsend noted that decisions of this kind are ultimately governed by national planning rules regardless of which authority a provider might be based in.
The mix-up only came to light after Bristol-based news outlet Bristol24/7 reported on the committee meeting, which in turn alerted Birmingham City Council to the reference to its name in a Bristol planning document. Birmingham has since asked for the record to be corrected, confirming it has no involvement in the Brislington property and no plans to open a children’s home outside its own area.
In an email explaining the mistake, Mehmood said the error stemmed from the use of an outdated document template during preparation of the statement, and that it did not reflect the true position, with the care provider’s staffing and operations relating entirely to Bristol.
Anjum Design describes itself as specialising in planning applications for children’s homes, HMOs and commercial conversions across the UK.
The Solihull Observer has approached Anjum Design for further comment.
