Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her neighbour’s planning application. This is because it is unlikely we would find fault affecting its decision.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains about the Council’s handling of her neighbour’s planning application. She is unable to say how the matter will affect her as the planning permission has not yet been implemented.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. 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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

3. I reviewed Mrs X’s complaint, the Council’s response and the Council’s casefile. I shared my draft decision with Mrs X and invited her comments.

Back to top

What I found

4. A neighbouring landowner to Mrs X applied for planning permission to develop their property in 2018. Mrs X objected to the application, primarily on noise grounds, but the Council approved the application. Mrs X believes the Council failed to properly consider information provided by the applicant and an expert and did not fully appreciate the likely impact of the development on her enjoyment of her property. She also believes the Council failed to answer questions or fully discuss the issues.
5. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. The planning casefile shows significant amounts of information about the likely impact of the development in terms of noise and it is unlikely we could say the Council wrongly assessed this, or that it should have reached a different decision.
6. While Mrs X says a noise assessment failed to correctly consider the scale of the development the planning officer referenced this point in objection to the application and they had full access to both the environmental health officer’s correspondence and the expert’s assessment. Their view was that the proposal would result in negligible noise levels to neighbouring properties, including Mrs X’s, and I see no basis for us to criticise their view.

Back to top

Final decision

7. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely we would find fault by the Council affecting its decision.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman