Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a planning enforcement matter. The alleged breach of planning control does not cause Mr X significant injustice and it is not a good use of resources to investigate separately the Council’s handling of Mr X’s complaint about the issue.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council has failed to deal with his report of a breach of planning control. He also complains the Council has not responded to his complaint about the matter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I reviewed Mr X’s correspondence with the Council, shared my draft decision with him and considered his comments.

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What I found

4. Mr X contacted the Council in early 2020 to report a breach of planning control at a site near his home. The Council has granted planning permission for development at the site but Mr X says the developer has not complied with a condition requiring them to store materials in one set area within the site.
5. The Council looked into the issue and decided it would not be expedient to take formal enforcement action against the developer, but Mr X was not happy with its response. He believes the Council contacted the wrong person to discuss the issue and that the Council based its decision on a misunderstanding about the development. Mr X complained to the Council but despite acknowledging his correspondence the Council has not issued any further formal response.
6. While Mr X is clearly concerned the developer has not complied with the condition referred to at Paragraph 4 the area used to store the materials is not significantly closer to Mr X’s home and the issue does not cause him significant injustice.
7. Mr X is also frustrated about the Council’s lack of response to his complaint but it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the issue does not cause Mr X significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman