South Somerset District Council (21 006 062)
Category : Planning > Enforcement
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 08 Nov 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council has dealt with complaints about Mr X’s neighbour using a farm track to access their property. This is because the Council is still dealing with this matter and we cannot know what injustice Mr X has been caused until it has completed its planning enforcement processes.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council has failed to stop his neighbour from using a farm track and public right of way as vehicular access to their property. Mr X says the regular use of the access poses a danger to the safety of the highway as well as local people using the public right of way.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council is dealing with the issue complained of at the moment. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint as we cannot know what the outcome of any enforcement action might be and so we cannot know what, if any, injustice Mr X has been caused. Once the Council has completed its investigations and any appeal rights have been exhausted, we may be able to consider Mr X’s complaint.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot know what injustice Mr X has been caused until the Council has completed its planning enforcement processes.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman