London Borough of Croydon (19 016 948)
Category : Planning > Planning applications
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 26 Feb 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Mr X complains about the Council’s grant of planning permission for a demolition of an existing property and the erection of a building to be comprised of flats. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient injustice to warrant investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about the Council’s grant of planning permission for a demotion of an existing property and the erection of a building to be complained of flats.
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.
What I found
- Mr X complains that the Council unreasonably granted planning permission for a development which includes flat roofs. He says that the Council was misled by a Planning Committee member who provided information with which Mr X disagrees.
- Mr X lives at least one mile away for the development and is unaffected by the design and size of the building. I do not therefore consider that there is sufficient injustice to Mr X to warrant investigation.
- I note that Mr X says he represents a Residents Association in his complaint. However, any injustice to such an association is speculative and not possible to remedy. Neighbouring residents (to the development) can make complaints in their own right if they so wish.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman