Southend-on-Sea City Council (20 005 920)
Category : Planning > Enforcement
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 10 Nov 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Mrs X complains that the Council did not investigate properly her complaints of breaches of planning control of properties not owned by her. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because there is no significant personal injustice caused to her by this to warrant investigation.
The complaint
- Mrs X complains that the Council did not investigate properly her complaints of breaches of planning control.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. 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 the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered the comments of the complainant and the Council and the complainant was given an opportunity to comment on the draft decision.
What I found
- Mrs X made complaints about several properties which she considered ought to be the subject of planning enforcement action as they required planning permission (in her view).
- None of the properties are next to Mrs X’s house. I appreciate that she feels that the Council’s failure to take action affects the availability of properties to let in the area but I am not persuaded any specific personal significant injustice is caused to her by the Council’s actions.
- Any possible action taken by the Council against her can be appealed to a Planning Inspector.
- Mrs X also complains about the way the Council dealt with her complaint. We will not investigate this because it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
Final decision
- I do not intend to investigate this complaint because there is insufficient injustice caused to her to warrant investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman