The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to safeguard a site from future development under local planning policy. There is insufficient evidence of any personal injustice to Mr X which would warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mr X complained about the Council’s failure to safeguard green space which he says is under threat of development. He says speculative developers have already purchased areas of the site and that the Council’s failure to act indicates it has predetermined the planning approval to develop the site in future.
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.
(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’s responses.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X says he is concerned that an area of green land is not protected from development under the Council’s local planning policy and that its purchase by a developer indicates that the planning approval to develop the site has been predetermined by the Council.
We will not investigate this compalint because there is insufficient evidence of any injustice to Mr X because there is no planning approval for the site or any application when he complained to us.
Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
Any application would have to be considered under the planning process and we cannot make decisions about the possible outcome of applications which have not been determined, or, as in this case, not submitted at the time we received the complaint. The local planning authority has no powers to prevent speculative developers from purchasing land or from submitting planning applications.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to safeguard a site from future development under local planning policy. There is insufficient evidence of any personal injustice to Mr X which would warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman