Summary: Mr B complains the Council has refused to address a complaint he has made about a planning application. The Ombudsman will not investigate the complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mr B, says the Council is wrong to refuse to address his complaint about a reserved matters planning application for a housing development in his area. He says he feels upset and embarrassed that the Council is refusing to address his complaint and that it is different to one he had previously made.

Back to top

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:

• 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, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

3. In considering the complaint I reviewed the information provided by Mr B and the Council. I gave Mr B the opportunity to comment on my draft decision and considered what he said.

Back to top

What I found

4. In 2018 the Ombudsman considered a complaint from Mr B about the Council’s handling of an outline planning application for a housing development on land close to where he lives. We found no fault in the way the Council dealt with the matter and came to its decision.
5. The developers submitted a reserved matters application for the development and this is due to be considered by the Council’s planning committee shortly.
6. In February 2020, Mr B wrote to the Council to make a further complaint. He raised queries relating to the original outline application and made comments on the reserved matters application. The Council wrote to him to explain that as it had already addressed his earlier complaint at stages 1 and 2 of its complaints procedure, it could not deal with his latest contact as another formal complaint. Instead, the Council told him that the reserved matters planning application was still being considered and he could make his representations via the normal planning application process.

Assessment

7. While I understand Mr B is disappointed the Council has directed him to use the planning process to make known his concerns on the reserved matters application, I see no evidence that it has been at fault in doing so.
8. His complaint in 2018 was addressed by the Council and then investigated by the Ombudsman. His latest complaint refers to matters previously raised in the earlier complaint and to matters the subject of the reserved matters application. If Mr B wants to make comments on this application he can do this via the normal planning process and not via the complaints procedure.

Back to top

Final decision

9. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman