Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to include works at a golf course as part of an earlier application for other works on the course. This is because the complaint is a late complaint and so falls outside our jurisdiction.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that works to a green on a golf course close to his property should have required planning permission and should have been included on an earlier application determined by the Council in 2021. He says he lost the opportunity to comment on the works which affect his amenity.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council, including its response to the complaint.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. At the end of 2020 the Council received a planning application for certain works at a golf course close to Mr X’s home. Mr X made objections to the application and said to the case officer at the time that other works should also form part of the application. The Council took the view that planning permission was not required for the additional works with which Mr X was concerned and so no amendment of the application was needed.
8. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies to Mr X’s complaint. He knew of the matters of which he complains in 2020 and as we would reasonably have expected him to have complained to us sooner about them, the complaint is late and so falls outside our jurisdiction to investigate.
9. Moreover, the Council has explained that even if the officer had decided planning permission was required, it did not view the works as unacceptable so the outcome would not have been different. It is not our role to review the merits of decisions taken by councils if they have followed the right steps and considered the relevant evidence and information.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the complaint is a late complaint and so falls outside our jurisdiction.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman