Source · SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman)

West Lothian Council

SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman) Not Upheld Reference 201205198 Sector Local Government Category handling of application (complaints by applicants) Decided 01 May 2013

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Original decision on the SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman) website ↗

Full decision

Summary

Mrs C planned to open a food takeaway and sought pre-application advice from the council about this. The council gave advice, which was generally positive about the plan, but made clear that it was given without prejudice to the assessment of a formal planning application. When Mrs C submitted her formal application, it was refused. Mrs C felt the pre-application advice should have alerted her to the basis upon which the application was ultimately refused.

As our investigation found that pre-application advice is not required to be exhaustive and that the advice received in this case was reasonable, we did not uphold Mrs C's complaint.

Related reading

View Decision Report 201205198 as a PDF (10.96 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018

View original on SPSO (Scottish Publ… website