Cheltenham Borough Council (20 012 832)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Mr X complains about the way the Council dealt with a planning application for a development of houses. We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient injustice caused to him to warrant investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about the way the Council dealt with a planning application for a development of houses.
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 he was prevented from commenting on a planning application submitted for a number of dwellings in his area. The development site is at least half a mile away from Mr X’s house. I appreciate Mr X’s dissatisfaction with the planning application (and the Council’s policy on notification) but I do not consider that there is any significant person injustice caused to Mr X that would warrant investigation of this complaint. He is not overlooked, nor will there be any loss of privacy or light from the development.
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