The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a planning application. This is because the complainant has not suffered significant injustice as a result of the alleged fault.
The complaint
Mr X has complained about how the Council dealt with a planning application for a development near his home. Mr X says the Council failed to notify him about the application and the proposal will impact traffic in the area.
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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, 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 Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Councils are required to give publicity to planning applications. The publicity required depends on the nature of the development. However, in all cases the application must be published on the Council’s website.
The Council says it did publicise the application as required. Mr X disagrees and says the Council should have written to him to tell him about the development. However, even if I did agree the Council failed to publicise the application as it should have, I do not consider Mr X has suffered any significant injustice as a result. Mr X was still aware of the application and commented on the proposal. The application has not yet been determined, and Mr X’s objections will be considered by the Council as part of its assessment of the proposal.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he has not suffered any significant injustice as a result of any alleged fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman