The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of the complainant’s planning application. The complaint is late and there are insufficient grounds to exercise discretion to investigate it now.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the Council making a ‘finally disposed’ of decision on his planning application. He says the Council did not make reasonable adjustments for his dyslexia during the determination of his application, and its actions sabotaged the sale of the property.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council, which included their complaint correspondence.
I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The time restriction detailed in paragraph 3 above applies to this complaint. The Council made the decision to ‘finally dispose’ of Mr X’s application in October 2023, and he received the Council’s final complaint response in September 2024, yet he did not contact the Ombudsman about the matter until July 2025.
I acknowledge Mr X has dyslexia. However, I am also mindful that he had an agent for his planning application, and I understand he had access to an advocacy service when making his complaint to the Council. It was also open to Mr X to submit his complaint to us over the phone (which he did in July 2025) rather than submit it in writing.
On balance, I am not persuaded there are sufficient grounds to exercise discretion to investigate this late complaint now.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is late, and there are insufficient grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman