Darlington Borough Council (22 013 077)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about alleged flaws in a supplementary planning document which the Council put out for consultation. The complainant has not suffered sufficient injustice to warrant our involvement.
The complaint
- The complainant, I shall call Mr X, says the Council put out a flawed document for consultation.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X says information is missing from a supplementary planning document (SPD) which the Council put out for consultation.
- The first consultation ran from September to October in 2022. Following concern from residents the Council agreed to make changes to the document and hold a second consultation. This ran from December 2022 to January 2023.
- Over one hundred comments were received on the amended SPD, including comments from Mr X. His comments included allegations that the document is flawed.
- The consultation is now closed, and the Council has yet to agree the SPD.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. Members of the public, including Mr X, were able to comment on the amended SPD. The consultation portal shows comments have been received which raise concerns, including this expressed by Mr X. Therefore, as he and others had the opportunity to comment on the document, and the document has not yet been adopted by the Council, I do not consider that Mr X has suffered a significant personal injustice which warrants our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman