Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to approve a flood bund conditioned by planning permission for a housing development close to Mr X’s home. This is because the complaint is a late complaint and so outside our jurisdiction.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council approved a flood bund without any construction details or engineers report. He says it is potentially unsafe to members of the public and future homeowners whose homes will be built on top of it and that it has not been built in accordance with the plans.

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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’ which we call ‘fault’. 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)
5. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

8. Mr X complains about the Council’s decision to approve a flood bund without sufficient construction details or engineers report. He says this particular matter was not covered in an earlier complaint he made to the Ombudsman which was decided in 2021 and covered floor levels of the houses to be built on the site.
9. There is a crossover of the issues of the bund and the floor levels and mention of the bund was made in the 2021 decision. Mr X says his latest complaint about the approval of the bund is a separate matter and was not covered in 2021. However, if this is the case, he would have known about the approval given to the bund at the time of his earlier complaint to us and it is too late now to raise it as a new complaint. If we treat his latest complaint as a separate matter, it is a late complaint and so falls outside our jurisdiction.
10. Mr X reported to the Council that the bund has not been built in accordance with the plans. However, the Council investigated his concerns at the beginning of last year and found no breach of planning permission. It advised Mr X to report damage caused to the bund to the developers which, if not fixed, could then be reported to its Enforcement Team.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is a late complaint and so outside our jurisdiction.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman