The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to follow planning rules and advice notes properly. There is not enough evidence of fault to warrant an investigation. The complaint is also late and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion and investigate.
The complaint
Ms C who is complaining on behalf of Mrs B says the Council: Failed to follow planning rules, regulations documents and advice notes properly.
Misled the planning committee through the planning assessment and report.
Mrs B also says there was no public consultation and the Council refused to escalate her complaint to stage three.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) .
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mrs B and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The minutes from the Development Committee that took place on 28 May 2020 make it clear that the objections made by Mrs B and all the other affected parties were considered.
The report also considered all the issues raised by the interested parties and the development committee was consulted.
There is also nothing to indicate that the committee was misled. Therefore, there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.
The complaint is late as Ms C was aware of the matter in May 2020 and the Council signposted her to the Ombudsman in September the same year. I recognise Mrs B has been unwell and receiving medical treatment sometime in the last two years, but there is no good reason Ms C could not have come to the Ombudsman before now.
In cases where we do not investigate the matters in a complaint, we do not separately investigate the Council’s complaint handling process.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs Bs complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant an investigation. The complaint is also late and there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman