Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council (22 016 603)
Category : Other Categories > Land
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 21 Mar 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council failed to inform Mr X of the change in status of land he owns. Mr X’s complaint is made late to us as he has known about this since 2011 and there are not good reasons for us to investigate now. Additionally, we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X seeks.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council failed to notify him in 2005 that it had changed the status of some land he owns, to green belt. Mr X became aware of this in 2011. Mr X says this has impacted on him financially and he wants the status of the land to be changed back to building land.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
- 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 we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X has known about the issue he complains about since 2011 and so his complaint is made late to us. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to have complained to us sooner and so I do not consider there are good reasons for us to investigate this late complaint now, as per paragraph two.
- We also cannot achieve the outcome Mr X seeks as we are not empowered to instruct the Council to change the status of the land.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is made late to us and we cannot achieve the outcome he seeks.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman