Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a breach of planning conditions and a recent planning application. Part of the complaint is late, and there is no good reason to exercise discretion and investigate it now. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council dealt with the most recent planning application to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council has not enforced planning conditions relating to her neighbour’s drains. She is also unhappy with how it considered the drains in a recent planning application and how it dealt with her complaint.

Back to top

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 about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. 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 our involvement
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)).
5. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

8. Ms X says her neighbour has not built drainage in line with planning permissions agreed over six years ago. She is unhappy the Council has not enforced the planning conditions.
9. Ms X complained to the Ombudsman in January 2026, therefore, her complaint about how the Council enforced planning permissions since before January 2025 is late. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. We have discretion to set aside this restriction where we decide there are good reasons. I can see no good reason why Ms X did not complain to us sooner.
10. Ms X’s neighbour made a more recent planning application. The most recent planning committee notes show the Council is aware the neighbour has not implemented the previous drainage strategy. However, the new planning application, contains new drainage plans and the drainage officer considered these and raised no objections. Therefore, there is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council has considered the most recent application.
11. As there are new planning conditions in place, there is nothing worthwhile to be achieved by us investigating the Council not taking enforcement action in respect of the previous drainage planning permissions. That is because the new planning conditions should be fit for purpose. If once complete, Ms X does not think the drains have been built in line with the most recent conditions, she would need to report this as a possible breach of planning conditions to the Council.
12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with her complaint. This is because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

Back to top

Final decision

13. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because part of the complaint is late and there is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council dealt with the most recent planning application to justify our involvement.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman