Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a planning enforcement matter. This is because the complaint is late and the matter does not cause Mr X significant injustice warranting further investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council has failed to take formal enforcement action against his neighbours for alleged breaches of a planning permission. He says the breaches impact light to his property and are overbearing. He also considers they impact on the appearance of the local area.

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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, 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.

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

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council told Mr X it did not intend to take formal enforcement action against his neighbour in December 2020, however Mr X did not raise his complaint with us until March 2023. The complaint is therefore late.
6. I note Mr X has provided reasons for some of the delay but I do not consider there are good reasons to exercise discretion for the whole period.
7. However, even if the complaint was in-time we would not investigate it. This is because the breaches Mr X refers to do not cause him significant personal injustice. We also cannot direct the Council to take enforcement action against Mr X’s neighbour and it is therefore unlikely we could achieve any worthwhile outcome in this case.
8. Mr X is also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with his complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late and neither the breach nor the Council’s actions cause Mr X significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman