Summary: Mr X complains the Council acted to favour a company involved in providing a service to a planning applicant because the company carried out some volunteer work to the benefit of the Council. We will not investigate the complaint because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, says the Council may have been involved in a ‘quid pro quo incident’ when it received some free volunteer work from a company which also acted for a planning applicant in the discharge of a planning condition. He says being the adjacent neighbour to the site to which the permission and condition related means he has been personally affected, particularly with regard to a party wall issue.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

3. In considering the complaint I reviewed the information provided by Mr X, including the Council’s responses to his complaint. I gave Mr X the opportunity to comment on my draft decision and considered what he said.

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What I found

4. Mr X lives next door to a property which is undergoing renovation work. The planning permission granted by the Council for work to the property included a condition requiring a specialist report. Company Z provided the report which the Council regarded as sufficient to discharge the condition.
5. Having read the local press, Mr X saw that Company Z had carried out some volunteer work in the Council’s area. Concerned that this work and the Council’s discharge of the planning condition were related, Mr X complained to the Council.
6. The Council responded to Mr X and explained there was no connection between the volunteer work by Company Z and the Council’s Planning Team. It said Planning officers would not have been aware of the volunteer work and even if they had, it would not have swayed their professional judgement. It invited Mr X to send in any evidence he had to the contrary. The Council commented that the link Mr X proposed was very weak and pointed out that as Company Z worked for the planning applicant, and had already won the work in question, it could not see what motivation Company Z would have to influence the planning process. The Council also advised Mr X that party wall issues were a civil law matter between him and his neighbour.
7. Dissatisfied with the Council’s response, Mr X complained to us.

Assessment

8. If Mr X has any evidence to support his claim of a possible ‘quid pro quo incident’ it is open to him to contact the Council with it and the Council can consider it. I do not consider an investigation by the Ombudsman is warranted as it is unlikely we will find evidence of fault by the Council.
9. In responding to my draft decision, Mr X says he disagrees with the Council’s view that having won the contract from the applicant, it could not see what motivation Company Z would have to try and influence the planning process. While I note Mr X’s contrary view that the company’s motivation was linked to the work it would do once the condition had been satisfied, this is not evidence of the quid pro quo Mr X thinks might have taken place. Neither is the Council’s confirmation to him that it would write to managers to remind them that they must consider whether any person or body proving a free service has any regulatory dealings with the Council and if it is appropriate to accept such offers. Contrary to Mr X’s view, I do not regard this action as an acknowledgement that his claim of a possible quid pro quo is supported and we will not investigate it.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman