Lichfield District Council (20 011 209)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Mr X complains about the way the Council considered a planning application from a neighbour for fencing. We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient injustice to warrant investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about the way the Council considered a planning application from a neighbour for fencing.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered the comments of the complainant and the Council and the complainant has commented on the draft decision.
What I found
- Mr X says that the Council improperly considered a planning application from a neighbour. Mr X lives several houses away from the site and the fencing sought would not, in my opinion, cause him such significant personal injustice as to warrant investigation.
- Mr X also refers to faults in the Council’s complaints procedure. However, the Ombudsman would not investigate a complaint about a complaints procedure where the substantive part of the complaint was not to be investigated.
Final decision
- I do not intend to investigate this complaint because there is insufficient injustice to warrant investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman