The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a planning enforcement matter. This is because the Council’s actions have not caused Mr X significant injustice.
The complaint
The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council failed to properly investigate a breach of planning control on land near his home. He says the planning enforcement officer failed to properly consider his evidence and did not keep him updated about the case. He would like the Council to apologise and change its practices.
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 Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We do not investigate all the complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider various tests. These include the alleged injustice to the person complaining. We only investigate the most serious complaints.
I understand Mr X is unhappy with the Council’s handling of the planning enforcement investigation and the lack of updates but the unauthorised development he reported is several hundred metres from his home and does not cause him significant personal injustice. The Council has also confirmed that one part of the development is acceptable and it has now granted retrospective planning permission for it. Another issue remains outstanding the Council and the Council has confirmed it is investigating and will update Mr X further in due course. Mr X would like the Council to provide updates every two weeks but in practice this is unlikely to be possible. Planning enforcement takes time and there may be certain information the Council cannot share with Mr X for data protection reasons.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council’s actions have not caused Mr X significant injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman