Summary: Mr X complains about the Council’s handling of planning and enforcement matters relating to a development close to his home. We will not investigate the complaint because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council sufficient to warrant an investigation and past events fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, complains about the Council’s handling of planning and enforcement matters relating to a development close to his home. He says the Council has failed to take into account the ownership of a boundary between his property and the development site and that in responding to his complaint, there has been a conflict of interest by officers.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’ which we call ‘fault’. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
3. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue 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 could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

4. 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

5. I considered information provided by the complainant which included the Council’s response to the complaint.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
7. I gave the complainant the opportunity to comment on my draft decision and considered what he said.

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My assessment

8. It is not our role to act as a point of appeal against decisions taken by councils with which complainants do not agree. We cannot question decisions taken by councils if they have followed the right steps and considered the relevant evidence and information.
9. Mr X has been complaining to the Council for some time about planning matters relating to a development close to his home. He is dissatisfied with the Council’s response and particularly to its reference to his concerns about a boundary between his and the development site being a civil matter with which the Council is not involved.
10. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 4 applies to parts of Mr X’s complaint which relate to past events over 12 months old from the time he became aware of them as we would reasonably have expected him to have complained to us about them sooner.
11. With regard to more recent events, the Council provided a comprehensive response to over 40 issues which Mr X raised when it addressed his complaint under its complaints procedure this year. While Mr X may not be satisfied with the outcome to his complaint, and by being told by the Council that issues concerning a land ownership dispute to be a civil matter between the two parties, there is no evidence to suggest fault affected the Council’s decisions or that there has been a conflict of interest.
12. In responding to my draft decision, Mr X says it is his view the Council was at fault because it accepted incorrect information about the boundary. The Council has told Mr X a number of times over the years that land ownership disputes are civil matters and that it does not “recognise” boundaries between properties in a legal ownership sense. The granting of planning permission does not override land ownership rights and it is open to Mr X to seek legal advice to protect these rights.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council sufficient to warrant an investigation and past events fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman