Summary: Mr X complains about the Council’s use of funds in relation to a planning permission. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because there is no significant personal injustice caused to Mr X to warrant investigation and the Council’s actions affect all or most of the people of the area. Part of the complaint is out of time.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s use of funds in relation to a planning permission.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
3. 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 has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. 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

5. I have considered the comments of the complainant and the Council and the complainant has commented on the draft decision.

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What I found

6. Mr X says that the Council made a payment (obtained from a planning permission legal agreement) towards a recreational building without explaining its reasons for so doing.
7. Any payment by a developer to the Council as a condition of a grant of planning permission is a matter for the Council to determine on the merits of the case. The use of those funds only affects Mr X as a taxpayer and, as such affects all or most of the population of the area. This part of the complaint is therefore out of jurisdiction for the reason given in para two above.
8. The decision to make the payment by the Council to the Parish Council was made in 2017 and is therefore out of jurisdiction for the reasons given in para three above.
9. Any actions or decisions of a Parish Council are also out of jurisdiction.
10. Whilst I appreciate Mr X’s concerns about the use of public money, I am not satisfied that here is any significant effect upon Mr X to warrant investigation.

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Final decision

11. I do not intend to investigate this complaint because there is significant personal effect upon Mr X to warrant investigation. Part of the complaint is out of time. Further, the Council’s actions affect all or most of the population of the area.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman