Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council gave poor advice and delayed dealing with his planning application. Mr X complains late and could reasonably have appealed the delay to the planning inspector.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council’s handling of his planning case was negligent and marked by delay and contradictory advice:
1. Mr X says the Council has accepted it failed to properly handle pre-application advice sought in June 2018. It has offered to refund the preapplication fee of £3,277.
2. Mr X says the Council delayed handling his 2019 planning application. It granted planning permission 9 months after the due date for determination.
2. Mr X says the Council should pay compensation to cover his economic loss and extra costs including interest charges on a loan. He has quoted a figure of £190,000. He also says the Council caused him to accept a lower sale price on a property.
3. Mr X says the Council delayed dealing with his complaint first made in November 2020. He says the Council has failed to improve its practice and protocols as it claims.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. 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)
6. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a government minister. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(b))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I have considered Mr X’s information and comments. The information includes the Council’s replies to his complaints dated 17 December 2020, 18 March 2021 and 12 July 2021 (legal reply).

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My assessment

8. I will not investigate this complaint for the following reasons:
9. The preapplication advice and handling of the planning application is outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. Mr X complains late outside the ‘permitted period’ of 12 months (see paragraph 5 above). The Council says it gave the advice in October 2018. By the summer of 2019 Mr X had submitted his planning application and later that year knew the Council might refuse it. Mr X complained to us in August 2021, I will not exercise discretion to investigate because he could have done so sooner. He appears to have delayed complaining to the Council for a considerable time.
10. The planning application delay is also outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction because Mr X had a right of appeal to the planning inspector who acts on behalf of the government minister (see paragraph 6). The Council says Mr X had a right of appeal from November 2019.
11. I consider it reasonable for Mr X to have used his right of appeal. The planning inspector had the power to determine the application and could deal with an application for limited costs where a council has been unreasonable. Mr X also say he was losing large amounts of money each month his project was delayed.
12. We will rarely investigate complaint handling where a complaint is outside jurisdiction or we are not investigating the substantive matter. There is insufficient injustice to do so here.

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Final decision

13. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council gave poor advice and delayed dealing with his planning application. Mr X complains late and could reasonably have appealed the delay to the planning inspector.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman