The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a reported breach of planning control. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council: Wrongly granted planning permission for more houses to be built on his housing estate in 2016 and earlier; Wrongly withdrew an enforcement notice in 2023; Has not properly enforced the developer’s non-compliance with agreed plans; Did not update him regarding enforcement decisions; and Handled his complaints poorly.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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) We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)) We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decisions to grant planning permissions related to planning applications from 2016 and earlier. Therefore, this complaint is late, and I consider there is no good reason to investigate it now.
The Council issued the developer with an enforcement notice in 2023. The developer appealed and the Council withdrew the notice. The Council says it withdrew the notice because the developer had taken suitable action and an appeal may delay the progress of the works further. The Council explained these reasons to Mr X in its complaint response. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision making.
The Council says the developer has taken suitable action to comply with the agreed plans. The Council told Mr X it continues to monitor the progress of the works and will consider further enforcement action if work stops or slows to an unacceptable level. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.
The Council apologised to Mr X for not updating him about enforcement matters. Any fault did not cause significant injustice to Mr X, and therefore I will not investigate further.
It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaints procedures if we are not investigating the substantive issue.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman