Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council discriminated against the complainant during its consideration of her planning application. This is because the complainant has already exercised her right of appeal to the Planning Inspector.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms X, believes the Council breached the Equality Act and discriminated against her during its consideration of her planning application. In particular, she says the Council delayed in determining the application, and her application was treated differently to others.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. The Ombudsman can investigate 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 an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

4. And we cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a government minister. The Planning Inspector acts on behalf of a government minister, and can consider appeals about delay in deciding a planning application. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(b), as amended)
5. We also cannot decide if an organisation has breached the Equality Act, as this can only be done by the courts.
6. Finally, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council, which included their complaint correspondence.
8. I also considered our Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. The Ombudsman cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint about the delay in determining her application, because she has used her right of appeal to the Planning Inspector. This restriction applies even if the appeal does not address all the issues raised or provide a remedy for all the injustice claimed.
10. And even if this restriction did not apply, we have no power to decide if the Council breached the Equality Act, so we could not reach a judgement on that part of Ms X’s complaint. And whilst the Council has acknowledged errors in its handling of the application, I have seen no evidence that these, or the other faults alleged by Ms X, were influenced by discrimination on the basis of her race. An investigation by the Ombudsman is therefore unlikely to find fault on that particular point in her complaint either.
11. Ms X also raised concerns about the way the Council dealt with her associated complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we unable to look at the substantive issues being complained about. We will not therefore investigate the complaints process separately.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because she has used her right of appeal to the Planning Inspector.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman