The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a planning application and the possible breach of a planning condition. This is because we are unlikely to find fault and the complainant has not been caused any personal injustice.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, has complained about how the Council dealt with a planning application and the possible breach of a planning condition. He says the matter has caused him to lose faith in the planning system and the planning decision should be overturned.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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, or any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council received an application for outline planning permission for a residential development near Mr X’s home.
Outline planning permission establishes the acceptability of development, subject to latter agreement to details of ‘reserved matters’. Reserved matters may be any or all of access, appearance, landscaping, layout, and scale of the development.
The application was referred to the Council’s planning committee for determination and members resolved to grant permission subject to the completion of a legal agreement under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act. Over a year later, the section 106 agreement was completed, and the planning decision notice was issued.
Mr X says the planning conditions have not been complied with as the developer failed to submit a reserved matters application within 12 months as required by the conditions. The Council disagrees and says the reserved matters application was received within 12 months of the decision notice being issued.
I am satisfied the Council properly considered Mr X’s concerns and explained why it does not consider the planning condition was breached. I understand Mr X disagrees and says the 12 month period should apply from when the planning committee resolved to grant outline permission. But planning permission was not granted and the planning conditions did not come into effect until the decision notice was issued. Therefore, it is unlikely I could find fault by the Council.
Furthermore, I cannot say Mr X has been caused any personal injustice by the matter.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault by the Council. Mr X has also not been caused any personal injustice by the matter.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman