Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a planning application for an extension to a property adjoining the complainant’s home. This is because it is reasonable to expect the complainant to have contacted us within 12 months of becoming aware that the application had been approved.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mrs B, complains about the Council’s handling/consideration of a planning application for a two-storey extension at the neighbour’s adjoining property.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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. We refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. But we cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I have considered:
• Mrs B’s complaint to the Ombudsman;
• Mrs B’s complaint to the Council and its Stage 1 and 2 complaint responses;
• Information about the planning application on the Council’s website, including Mrs B objection;
• Mrs B’s comments on a draft version of this statement.

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What I found

6. The 12-month time restriction, detailed in paragraph 4 above, applies to Mrs B’s complaint.
7. This is because the application was approved in late-June 2018. I understand there was an exchange of emails between Mrs B and the application case officer in July 2018, during which Mrs B was provided with a link to the Council’s complaints process. Yet Mrs B did not contact the Ombudsman until February 2020, having gone through the Council’s complaints process between early‑July 2019 and mid-November 2019.
8. I am unaware of any good reasons why Mrs B was prevented from contacting the Ombudsman within 12 months of becoming aware that the application had been approved, and I have seen no evidence that she regularly sought to raise her complaint with the Council between July 2018 and July 2019.
9. So, I do not consider we should exercise discretion to consider this late complaint now.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs B’s complaint. This is because it is reasonable to expect her to have complained to the Ombudsman sooner.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman