Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s commencement of action at the High Court as the matter falls outside our jurisdiction. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to accept his development is lawful as there are other bodies better placed to consider the issue.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council issued a High Court summons against him regarding a planning enforcement matter. Mr X says he has permission to carry out work on the site and says it has cost more than £50,000 to defend the case. He also says that is losing £15,000 per month as a result of not being able to proceed with his development.

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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:

• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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)
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
6. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a government minister. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(b), as amended)
7. The Planning Inspector acts on behalf of the responsible Government minister. The Planning Inspector considers appeals about:

• A decision to refuse planning permission,
• Conditions placed on planning permission,
• Planning enforcement notices.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
9. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

10. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s court action as it is caught by the exclusion set out at Paragraph 3 above.
11. It is also not for us to determine whether the development Mr X wishes to carry out is lawful and we would not provide a remedy for the losses Mr X claims; these issues are too closely related to the merits of the Council’s High Court action and carry alternative remedies to the Planning Inspectorate and/or the courts. We consider it would be reasonable for Mr X to challenge the Council’s actions with these bodies and we could not achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mr X by investigating further.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because we have no jurisdiction to investigate complaints about the commencement and conduct of court action and we cannot decide whether Mr X’s development is lawful. There are other bodies better placed to determine this issue.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman