Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about planning permission and planning enforcement because the injustice cannot be assessed at this stage.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains that the Council wrongly granted planning permission for a change of use to a neighbouring home which she believes will cause social disturbance.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We 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 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

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the @complainant @and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X’s neighbour obtained planning permission for the conversion of a barn into a single dwelling in 2004. In 2023 a Certificate of Lawful Use was granted by the Council for a change of use to a children’s home.
6. Ms X complained that the Council had not taken into account conditions placed on the original planning permission in 2004.
7. The Council accepts that they failed to properly consider the original condition.
8. The Council is now investigating whether enforcement action should be taken.
9. The Council has apologised for the failure to properly consider the planning application and offered £150 compensation.
10. I appreciate that, if the planning permission should not have been granted, or with alternative conditions the injustice could be greater than the amount offered, but we will not know this until the outcome of the enforcement investigation.
11. Ms X can therefore make a further complaint to this office when the enforcement decision is made and a new assessment can be made.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the injustice cannot be fully assessed at this stage.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman