Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (22 001 591)
Category : Planning > Enforcement
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 15 May 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Ms X complains about the Council’s decision to grant planning permission to a neighbour. We will not investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council and the matter is out of time.
The complaint
- Ms X complains about the Council’s decision to grant planning permission to a neighbour.
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)
- 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:
- there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
- 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.
- I considered the complainant’s comments on my draft decision.
My assessment
- Ms X’s neighbour opposite her house obtained planning permission for the erection of a dwelling. She says that that the new house will overlook her house and affect her privacy.
- The planning permission was granted in December 2020. I see no reason why a complaint about this matter could not have been made within 12 months of the grant of planning permission and so the matter is out of time.
- Further, there is no evidence of administrative fault by the Council. The Planning Officer was able to assess the possible effects of the development on Ms X’s property from the scaled plans.
Final decision
- I do not intend to investigate this complaint because the matter is out of time and there is no evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman