Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision that a breach of planning control has not occurred. We do not consider the complainant has suffered a significant personal injustice which warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has failed to acknowledge that a breach of planning control occurred. He acknowledges that any action against a breach of planning control is discretionary. But he believes the Council should accept a breach has occurred.

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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 im-pact 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(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 Mr X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X reported a breach of planning control to the Council. He advised a developer had accessed a site via a lane which is not specified in the Construction Environmental Management Plan (CEMP).
6. The Council confirms the developer accessed the site via the lane over a period of three days to lay foundations, thereby ensuring a planning permission remained extant. It decided there was no breach as the developer used an existing lawful access to enable the works. It also confirmed it did not consider this caused substantial public harm.
7. I recognise Mr X is concerned the Council has not accepted that a breach of planning control occurred. But in any event, the Council has confirmed that accessing the site via the lane for a period of three days to complete foundations did not cause substantial harm.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. We do not consider that the Council’s decision not to agree that a breach of planning control has occurred has caused Mr X a significant personal injustice to warrant our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman