Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision that a structure, next to the complainant’s home, benefits from permitted development rights. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the way the Council reached its decision.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has wrongly decided a structure built at a neighbouring property benefits from permitted development rights.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We can 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. So, we do not start an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (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, which included the Council’s complaint responses.
• information provided by the Council, which included photographs taken during its site visits, and confirmation of where the height measurement was taken from.
• the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. I appreciate Mr X is unhappy the Council has decided the structure benefits from permitted development rights.
5. But the Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at whether there was fault in how the Council made its decision. If we decide there was no fault in how it did so, we cannot ask whether it should have made a particular decision or say it should have reached a different outcome.
6. Here, the Council has visited the site on two occasions, measured the height of the structure above the patio, and calculated the curtilage of the property. The officer also inspected the perimeter of the garden and could not see any evidence that the ground levels had been raised.
7. As such, there is insufficient evidence of fault in the way the Council has considered this matter, so the Ombudsman will not start an investigation.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault in the way the Council considered this planning enforcement issue.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman