City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council (23 016 377)
Category : Planning > Planning advice
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 28 Feb 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of the complainant’s planning application. This is because the complainant has appealed to the Planning Inspector.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about the case officer’s handling of his planning application. In particular, Mr X says the officer did not return his calls and failed to properly respond to a councillor’s request for the application to be referred to the Planning Panel.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 a decision to refuse planning permission. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(b), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered:
- information provided by Mr X and the Council, which included their complaint correspondence.
- Information about Mr X’s planning application on the Council’s planning website.
- the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- I appreciate Mr X is unhappy about the way his application was handled.
- But, with reference to paragraph 2 above, we cannot investigate his complaint because he has already appealed to the Planning Inspector against the Council’s refusal of his application. Case law has determined that the Ombudsman cannot investigate when someone has used their appeal right, even if the appeal would not or could not address all the issues complained about.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he has already used his right of appeal to the Planning Inspector.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman