Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of planning and enforcement matters related to a new dwelling near the complainant’s home. This is because the complainant has not suffered a significant personal injustice as a direct result of the alleged fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mrs B, says the Council has failed to properly handle planning and enforcement matters related to a new dwelling near her home.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• 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)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered:
• Mrs B’s complaint to the Ombudsman, and her responses to our further enquiries;
• The Council’s November 2019 final complaint response;
• Information on the Council’s website about the planning applications related to the new dwelling;
• Mrs B’s comments on a draft version of this statement.

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What I found

4. Mrs B lives approximately 100m (‘as the crow flies’) from the new dwelling, on a different road. She says she can see its roofline from her front garden and upstairs windows, towering behind the two-storey houses on the opposite side of her road. Mrs B says she can see the development on every vehicular approach to her house, and does not think it is in keeping with the character and scale of the surrounding buildings.
5. I appreciate Mrs B thinks the new dwelling detracts from the local street scene, and she is concerned for residents who are more directly affected by it. However, given the distance between Mrs B’s property and the new dwelling, I am not persuaded the impact of the development on Mrs B is so significant as to warrant the Ombudsman investigating the matter further.

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Final decision

6. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs B’s complaint. This is because the impact of the development on Mrs B is not so significant as to warrant out continued involvement in the case.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman