Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s decision against taking enforcement action against a neighbouring development. The complaint is late and there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision-making process.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council failed to properly investigate and take enforcement action against a neighbouring development.
2. Miss X said this resulted in damage to her property and affected her amenity and privacy. It also caused her significant distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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/care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
5. 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
6. 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)
7. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

10. Miss X first raised concerns about a neighbouring development in 2021. But the Council decided there was no breach of planning control.
11. Miss X contacted the Council again in April 2024 to raise another concern about the same development. As Miss X’s complaint to the Ombudsman is about the same circumstances, it is clear she was aware of the matter in April 2024. Therefore, the complaint is late.
12. Even if the complaint was not late, or if it was late but with good reason, we would not investigate anyway. There is not enough evidence the Council is at fault because it:
• provided a thorough response to Miss X’s detailed complaint. It considered her allegations and its powers to address them;
• identified a breach of planning control following Miss X’s complaint in 2024. It invited the developer to submit a retrospective planning application. There was no fault in that as the first response to a planning breach;
• considered its powers to enforce against the breach and decided against enforcement action, noting it would not be a proportionate response to the breach.
13. Planning enforcement is discretionary and formal action should happen only when a local planning authority decides it is expedient. When deciding whether to enforce, councils should consider the likely impact of harm to the public and whether they might grant approval if they were to receive an application for the development or use. The Council has done this here and provided its reasoning to Miss X explaining why it will not enforce.
14. The Council accepts there was delay in responding to Miss X’s 2024 complaint and it apologised. It would not be a good use of public resources to investigate this issue alone and we would be unlikely to seek more than the apology the Council has already offered.
15. Given there does not appear to be fault in the Council’s decision-making process, there does not seem to be any good reason to investigate this late complaint.

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Final decision

16. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because the complaint is late without good enough reason to investigate it now and there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision-making process.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman