The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with the complainant’s planning application. This is because the complainant had the right to appeal to the Planning Inspector.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, has complained about how the Council dealt with his planning application. He says it took the Council too long to determine his application and officers did not communicate with him.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a government minister. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(b)) The Planning Inspector acts on behalf of the responsible Government minister. The Planning Inspector considers appeals about: delay – usually over eight weeks – by an authority in deciding an application for planning permission a decision to refuse planning permission conditions placed on planning permission a planning enforcement notice.
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X could have appealed to the Planning Inspector after eight weeks if he was unhappy with how long the Council was taking to determine his application. I consider it would have been reasonable for Mr X to have appealed. The Planning Inspector is independent and has the power to grant planning permission.
Mr X has also complained the Council did not communicate with him about the application and says his requests for updates were ignored. Mr X says this made it difficult to plan for the works and could have resulted in financial losses. However, this is related to the matter which could have been appealed. The Ombudsman will not usually investigate when someone had a right to appeal to the Planning Inspector, even if the appeal would not address all the issues complained about.
Furthermore, I cannot say Mr X has been caused any significant injustice because the Council did not update him about the application as it granted planning permission shortly after Mr X contacted it.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it would have been reasonable for him to have used his right of appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman