Summary
A local councillor (Mr C) complained on behalf of two of his constituents that works on a neighbouring property had begun without the relevant permit being issued. He was also unhappy with the council's responses to the complaints he made on his constituents' behalf.
Our investigation found that the council officer involved had verbally advised the contractor that the permit would be issued, and was then unexpectedly absent from work when the application was received. We did not uphold the complaint about this, as we decided that in the circumstances it was reasonable for the council to allow the work to progress before the permit was issued. We did uphold the complaint about the council's complaints handling because of the delay in providing Mr C with a response. As the council had taken action as a result of the complaint, by apologising and putting extra resource in place to ensure this did not happen again, we did not make any recommendations.
Related reading
View Decision Report 201300497 as a PDF (11.04 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018