appendix d: summaries of selected cases t. ministry of economic affairs and the interior The following cases concluded in 2011 were selected for publication in the Annual Report: 4-1. Consultation with neighbours prior to planning permission Two citizens complained to the Ombudsman that they had not been consulted before their local authority issued a planning permission in respect of a neighbouring property. The Regional State Administration and the local authority did not find that the two citizens should have been consulted as parties to the case. Among other things, the Regional State Administration stated that the local authority could not have refused to issue a planning permission irrespective of any additional information and objections put forward by the citizens. The Ombudsman found that the two citizens should have been consulted as parties to the case. He was also of the opinion that the Regional State Administration should have reprimanded the local authority for this omission. The Ombudsman stated, among other things, that the duty to consult parties in an application case is not contingent on whether or not the public authority is allowed to refuse to make the decision applied for. (Case No. 2009-3164-104) 4-2. Request for access to school memos on incidents between school employees and parent A parent representative on a school board complained to the Ombudsman about a refusal of a request for access to three memos. The memos had been written by three employees at the school and concerned incidents between the employees and the parent representative. The employees had given the memos to the school principal, who had read out the memos at a school board meet­ing at which the parent representative was also present. The parent representative afterwards requested access to the three memos. The request was refused by the local authority and the Regional State Administration (the unit supervis- 131