Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the Council replying to the complainant’s various planning enquiries/complaints in one consolidated email. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr B, is a planning agent, and says the Council should not have responded to his separate enquiries/complaints about different planning sites and applications in one email response. He says he asked for them to be dealt with individually, to avoid misunderstanding and confusion, and so that the issues could be escalated accordingly and the information could be shown to his clients.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we would find fault. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. In that regard, we cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered:
• Mr B’s complaint to the Ombudsman;
• The Council’s emails/letters to Mr B dated 5 September 2018, 13 February 2019 and 6 March 2019; and,
• Mr B’s comments on a draft version of this statement.

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What I found

5. I appreciate Mr B would have preferred it if the Council had sent individual responses about each site.
6. But is open to Councils to decide how to use their limited resources to provide services in the most efficient manner. The Ombudsman cannot question such decisions, unless there is evidence of administrative fault in the way they were made.
7. I find there is insufficient evidence of administrative fault in the Council’s decision to address Mr B's enquiries in one consolidated response, to warrant the Ombudsman pursuing the matter. In reaching that view, I am particularly mindful that the Council’s approach does not appear to have prevented Mr B from further escalating/pursuing any concerns about the individual sites, or from copying/disseminating the information to the relevant client.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr B’s complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman