The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her neighbour’s planning application. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault.
The complaint
The complainant, Ms X, complains the Council failed to consult her about two planning applications for development to a neighbouring property. She says the development blocks her view, is overbearing and restricts light to her property. She is also concerned about noise from future use of the property.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Ms X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
It is unlikely we would find fault by the Council in not consulting Ms X on her neighbour’s planning applications. One of the applications was of a type where the Council is not required to consult neighbours and the Council’s records confirm it wrote to Ms X inviting her views on the other. The law does not require the Council to use a trackable delivery method when sending neighbour consultation letters and we could not show, on balance, that the Council failed to send the letter. It is therefore likely any non-delivery was a result of failures in the postal service, rather than by the Council.
However, regardless of whether Ms X objected to the application the Council was required to consider the impact of the proposal on her property and the planning officer’s report shows it did so in this case. The impact of a proposal on a person’s view is not a material planning consideration but the Council specifically noted the impact of the proposal in terms of overbearing and loss of light and decided it was acceptable. The planning officer also addressed Ms X’s concerns about possible future noise from use of the property, finding this to be acceptable.
The law does not allow us to question the Council’s judgement on these points and it is therefore unlikely we would find fault by the Council.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman