The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a planning application with which Mr X is interested. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Mr X to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council has failed to provide a decision on a planning application with which he is concerned within 8 weeks, failed to obtain a time extension with the applicant and erred in its handling of a councillor’s request to call the application in.
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 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))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council, including its response to the complaint.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X is concerned about a planning application submitted by a business in his area. He complained to the Council about a variety of issues in relation to the application and the Council responded to them, including an apology to Mr X because an officer had put the phone down on him during a call.
We do not investigate every complaint we receive and while Mr X may not be satisfied with the Council’s response to his complaint neither the fault by the Council nor the injustice caused to Mr X is sufficient to warrant a formal investigation by the Ombudsman.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Mr X to warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman