Summary: Mr X complains about the way the Council consulted him about development of a piece of land. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient injustice to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the way the Council consulted him about development of a piece of land.

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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, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the complainant's and Council's comments. The complainant has commented on the draft decision.

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What I found

4. Mr X says that he was sent a consultation letter about the Council’s plan for regeneration of land near him. He says that the letter was sent late (or delivered late) so that he only had one day to prepare his comments on the development of the land before a public meeting.
5. The Council apologised for this. However, if the Ombudsman were to consider this fault, he must consider what injustice this has caused.
6. The initial consultation with the public has now closed (although it had continued for any comments up to 21 days after Mr X received notification). Further, the final report states that the report will provide the basis for further consultation and debate. Any final decision about the suitability of development of the land would have to be through the planning system by means of a planning application for which Mr X will have further opportunities to object.
7. I cannot therefore conclude that the injustice caused to Mr X by the short period of time he had to comment at a local meeting was insufficient to warrant investigation as the outcome is highly speculative.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because the injustice is too speculative to warrant investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman