Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s advice on the complainant’s planning application and its refusal to refund the fee. We have not seen enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council gave her wrong advice resulting in her incurring a charge of £640 to application for a planning application which she did not need.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We 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 or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Ms X says she contacted the Council several times for advice on whether and how to a apply for planning permission for to run a taxi office from her home. She says despite this she was told to put in a full planning application which cost £640 which she did not need.
6. Ms X did not apply for pre-planning application advice. Instead she emailed the planning department asking if she needed planning permission to run a taxi officer from her home. She said it was not for a rank but as an operator base.
7. The Council told her that:

“all Private Hire services from home require a Certificate of Proposed Lawfulness to be submitted as this is not something we can advise on if it would require planning permission or not and requires a Planning Officer to review the details of a submitted application before deciding if it would require Planning Permission or not. This can be applied for at the link below and will cost £289, if you are unsure about the process of submitting an application, you will need to hire the services of an external Planning Agent to submit the application on your behalf. You will need to research who to choose as this is no something we are able to advise on.”

It also said:

“if this will be a booking office for an external fleet of taxi’s as if this is the case, this will actually require a Change of Use Planning Application to operate this from a home”

8. Ms X chose to put in a full planning application. She asked for help in completing the application and the correct fee.
9. The Council said a full plans application requires a location plan and floor plans. It said she should contact the validation team support staff if she needed help to submit her application or hire an agent to help her.
10. After processing the application the Council confirmed Ms X did not need planning permission.
11. Ms X complained she was charged £640 for a planning application she did not need. She asked for a refund.
12. However Ms X did not apply for pre planning application advice.
13. I understand Ms X says she told the Council several times that she was not intending to operate a taxi rank from home.
14. The Council correctly advised her to apply for a Certificate of Proposed Lawfulness which would have established whether planning permission was required. However, she chose to submit a full plans application which the Council was obliged to process. However, in her emails she asked the Council about operating a taxi office from home. The application was for a private hire service.
15. I am aware the Council’s decision was that planning permission was not required. However, the application was processed in the usual way therefore there is no requirement for the Council to issue a refund of the application fee.

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Final decision

16. We will not investigate Ms ’s complaint because we have not seen enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman