Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a lack of enforcement action. The complainant has not suffered sufficient personal injustice to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall call Mr B, says the Council has:
• Unreasonably sought to delay planning enforcement against development on a Traveller site in the area where he lives
• Unreasonably failed to take enforcement action against unauthorised development at the same site; and
• Failed to keep him informed of progress

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr B, including the Council’s responses.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. In assessing complaints, we must look not only at the claimed fault but also at what injustice this has caused the complainant.
6. Mr B worries the Council is allowing a situation to develop which may cause the Council to incur multi-million-pound legal costs which will be funded by residents. He also says he has had to spend time chasing the Council for information.
7. Concerns about potential future legal costs is speculative and would affect all or most of the Council’s residents. Such complaints are outside our jurisdiction.
8. The Council has confirmed:
• an open enforcement case exists
• service of an injunction preventing further development on the site
• it is preparing an Enforcement Notice to requiring removal of unauthorised development on the site
9. I understand Mr B has spent time chasing the Council for updates and accept this may have been frustrating and time-consuming. However, I do not consider this injustice to be so significant as to justify an investigation.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because there is not enough injustice to warrant our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman