Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council failed to monitor and enforce planning conditions associated with an indoor football use. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, says the Council has failed to monitor and enforce planning conditions associated with an indoor football business close to where he lives. He says this has resulted in anti-social behaviour and noise nuisance in the area, but the Council is refusing to accept a complaint about his concerns.
2. Mr X says the Council is wasting public money, and thinks its planning and complaints departments should be closed down.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. The Ombudsman can investigate 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 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, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• we are satisfied with the actions a council has taken or proposes to take.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(60 & (7))

5. And 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)
6. We also cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
7. Lastly, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council, which included their recent complaint correspondence and an update on what has happened over the last year or so.
9. I also considered our Assessment Code.

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My assessment

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint for the reasons explained below.
11. The 12-month time restriction applies to any parts of Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to grant planning permission for the football use. This is because permission was granted in 2010, yet Mr X did not contact the Ombudsman about this issue until 2023. Similarly, the time restriction would apply to any issues or concerns that Mr X has been aware of for more than 12 months. I see no reasons why Mr X was prevented from complaining to us sooner, so the Ombudsman will not investigate these historic matters now.
12. In February 2022, the Council says Mr X reported noise nuisance coming from the premises, but withdrew his complaint two months later. It says it has no other record of Mr A reporting anti-social behaviour associated with the football use in recent times. Notwithstanding this, the Council has offered to look afresh at any ongoing issues with noise nuisance/anti-social behaviour, and it is open to Mr X to report this to the relevant departments in the Council. As such, and with reference to paragraph 4 above, there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council causing the complainant an injustice in the last year or so, and the Council has proposed a satisfactory way to address any ongoing concerns.
13. As we are not investigating the substantive issue being complained about, it would not be a good use of our resources to pursue Mr X’s concerns about the Council’s complaint process in isolation.
14. Finally, the Ombudsman has no power to investigate any parts of the complaint about how the Council uses public money, as that is a matter which affects all or most people in the Council’s area. We also have no power to recommend the closure of Council departments, so we cannot achieve some of the outcomes Mr X is seeking.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint for the reasons stated above.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman