The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with planning applications. This is because it is unlikely an investigation would add to the Council’s response and the complainant has not been caused any significant personal injustice.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, has complained the Council accepted comments on planning applications without an address being provided to verify the submissions.
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: any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or we could not add to any previous investigation by the council, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(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’s policy says a person wishing to comment on a planning application should provide their name and address and anonymous comments will not be accepted. The Council accepts the policy was not followed in relation to the planning applications Mr X has referred to. It has apologised for the error and said it will ensure that names and addresses are provided in future.
I consider this a suitable remedy in the circumstances, and it is unlikely an investigation by the Ombudsman would add to this response or achieve anything further for Mr X. I also cannot say Mr X has been caused any significant personal injustice by the matter.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is unlikely an investigation by the Ombudsman could add to the Council’s response. Mr X has also not been caused any significant personal injustice by the matter.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman