London Borough of Camden (18 010 568)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Mr X complained about the Council’s decision to approve a fast food restaurant and take-away near his home. Mr X says the new restaurant will affect his amenities. There was no fault in the way the Council made its decision.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about the Council’s failure to protect his amenity when it approved a planning application for a fast food restaurant and take-away.
- Mr X says he will be disturbed by noise, odour and increased litter near his home.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
- We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:
- it is unlikely we would find fault, or
- it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
- we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
- If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I read the complaint and discussed it with Mr X. I read the Council’s response to the complaint and considered documents from its planning files, including the plans and the decision notice.
- I gave the Council and Mr X an opportunity to comment on a draft of this decision.
What I found
- Regulations require that councils must publicise planning applications in accordance with minimum requirements. A minor application may be publicised either by notice on or near the site, or by neighbour notification letter. Major applications must also be placed in a local newspaper.
- Councils must have Statements of Community Involvement (SCI), which set out how they will communicate with the public, including publicity of planning applications. These statements may go beyond minimum regulatory requirements.
- Councils should approve planning applications that accord with policies on the local development plan, unless other material planning considerations indicate they should not.
- Planning considerations include things like:
- access to the highway;
- protection of ecological and heritage assets; and
- the impact on neighbouring amenity.
- Planning considerations do not include things like:
- views over another’s land;
- the impact of development on property value; and
- private rights and interests in land.
- Councils may impose planning conditions to make development acceptable in planning terms. Conditions should be necessary, enforceable and reasonable in all other regards.
- Councils should keep a record of its decisions and how it makes them. This information is usually found in a case officer’s report, but is sometimes found in ‘informative’ sections of planning decision notices. We check for evidence to show the Council has taken account of the key, material planning considerations.
Background
- Mr X lives just outside the centre of the city on a main road. Within a few hundred metres of Mr X’s home are several late-night restaurants and take-away food shops. On the ground floor of Mr X’s block was a restaurant which had no restrictions on opening hours.
- The new owners/occupiers of the restaurant applied to the Council to change the use of the restaurant to a hot food and take-away restaurant.
- The Council put up a planning notice near the site. Mr X says the notice was placed about 15 to 20 metres away from the application site. Mr X says neither he nor any of his neighbours saw the notice and did not realise the application had been approved until much later.
- The Council approved the application subject to planning conditions, including:
- a restriction on hours until 1am Mondays to Fridays and until midnight on Sundays and Bank Holidays; and
- noise and time limits for ventilation, heating and extraction plant.
- In an ‘informative note’ in the application approval notice, the Council explains the reasons it considered the application acceptable. It said:
- the location of the site was a mixture, residential and retail;
- the plant could be controlled by condition;
- odour could be controlled by condition; and
- no objections had been received.
My findings
- We are not an appeal body for planning applications. Our role is to check whether there is fault in the decision-making process. Where we find fault, we determine whether an injustice was caused: to do this, we must decide whether, but for the fault, the Council would have made a different decision.
- Mr X is unhappy that he was not directly notified about the application and that it was not placed on or very near the site. The Council’s SCI does not require more than the regulatory minimum. The Council placed the notice within 20 metres of the site and so complied with the regulations.
- Mr X is also unhappy the development will affect his amenity, but the reasons in the Council’s approval notice shows its considered the impact on neighbouring amenities when it made its decision.
- For these reasons, I find no fault in the way the Council approved the planning application.
Final decision
- I completed my investigation as there was no fault in the way the Council made its decision.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman