The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to temporarily restrict communication between planning officers and agents. The Council has already withdrawn the restriction, apologised to Miss X and is acting to improve its service. We consider that further investigation will not lead to a different outcome.
The complaint
Miss X says the Council restricted communication between planning officers and applicants/agents. She says this caused avoidable delay, lack of transparency, and frustration to applicants and agents.
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 further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
In response to Miss X’s complaint the Council acknowledged its planning service was under significant pressure and could not meet customer expectations.
The Council confirms it engaged independent consultants to review the planning service. It presented a report on the review to its Economic Development and Scrutiny Committee in May 2025. It implemented an improvement plan. Part of this was to instruct planning officers to prioritise progressing and deciding cases and direct enquiries to the public access portal.
I understand the Council advised its planning agent forum of its intended actions in May 2025 and gave an update in September 2025. It has also removed the temporary restriction and is responding to enquiries again.
Final decision
We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because the Council acknowledged it had significant service difficulties. It engaged consultants to review the service. It took temporary measures to restrict communication with applicants and agents to enable it to focus on live applications. Applicants and agents could view information online. And the temporary restrictions have now been removed. The Council has apologised for the impact this caused.
We consider that further investigation will not lead to a different outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman