Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council (21 016 337)
Category : Planning > Enforcement
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 01 Mar 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about planning enforcement action taken by the Council against advertisement displays erected by the complainant. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. It is reasonable to expect the complainant to have contacted us sooner, and we have no power to investigate what happened at court.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, complains about the planning enforcement action taken by the Council in relation to his advertisement displays. He says the Council did not follow the correct enforcement process and lied in court. Mr X says this caused him to lose his business.
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 cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and our Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The events Mr X is complaining about occurred more than 12 months ago, so the restriction detailed in paragraph 2 above applies to his complaint. I see no reasons why Mr X was prevented from complaining to the Ombudsman sooner, so we will not start an investigation now.
- In addition, the Ombudsman has no power to consider any parts of the complaint about the commencement or conduct of the court action taken by the Council against Mr X.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is reasonable to expect him to have contacted us sooner, and we cannot consider any concerns about what happened at court.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman