London Borough of Hounslow (19 009 164)
Category : Planning > Planning applications
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 10 Mar 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Mr X complains about the Council’s decision to insulate the Council houses close to him. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council causing him significant injustice.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about the Council’s decision to insulate the Council houses close to him.
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 had an opportunity to comment on the draft decision. I have also seen the photographs kindly supplied by Mr X.
What I found
- The Council granted planning permission to itself in 2017 to add insulation to its properties. The Council says that Mr X was notified of the planning application at the time (although Mr X disputes this).
- Mr X says that this means that the neighbouring properties to him will look different to his.
- The Council says that the appearance of the scheme was considered in the planning application process and was intended to keep within the street scene.
- The insulation of neighbouring properties does not cause a significant injustice to Mr X. The look of the properties once the work had been completed does not, in my view, cause such injustice to Mr X as to warrant investigation. Mr X has a right to alter his property with the benefit of planning permission.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman