Summary: We will not investigate the complainant’s concerns about the Council’s failure to put its Environmental Impact Assessment screening options on its planning register. This is because it is unlikely we could add to the Council’s response or achieve anything more for the complainant.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, has complained the Council is not putting a copy of its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) screening options on its planning register. Mr X says the Council is failing to meet statutory requirements and its non-compliant and unlawful approach is putting third parties at a disadvantage. Mr X says he has been caused stress and been put to time and trouble as a result.

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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, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a government minister. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(b))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered Mr X’s complaint and the Council’s responses. I invited Mr X to comment on a draft of this decision and have considered his comments in response.

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What I found

5. The purpose of an EIA is to protect the environment by ensuring Local Planning Authorities, when determining planning applications that are likely to impact the environment, do so with a full understanding of the effects. The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 sets out the processes for development that will be subject to an EIA and for assessing, consulting and deciding these applications.
6. There are different stages to the EIA process. The initial stages involve screening to determine if a proposal will likely have a significant effect on the environment and if an assessment is needed. The next stage is scoping to determine the extent of the issues to be covered by the EIA.
7. A third party can challenge a screening or scoping option by making a screening direction request to the Planning Inspectorate.

Assessment

8. I will not investigate this complaint about how the Council makes EIA screening options available. This is because it is unlikely the Ombudsman could add to the Council’s response or achieve anything more for Mr X.
9. Mr X says the Council is required to put a copy of its EIA screening options on its planning register. He says the Council is not complying with the EIA regulations by failing to do so. The Council says it disagrees with Mr X’s interpretation of the law. It says unitary authorities are required to make the screening and scoping options available. Therefore, it makes sure adopted screening and scoping options are on the planning register for the relevant authorities. It says as it is a tier two authority the same requirements do not apply. However, following Mr X’s complaint it has decided to also include this information on its online planning register going forward as it accepts this will make the information accessible to more people.
10. Mr X is unhappy with the Council’s response and argues it is legally required to make the screening options available. However, even if this is the case, the Council has now agreed to do this. Therefore, it is unlikely an investigation by the Ombudsman could achieve anything more or add to the Council’s response.
11. I understand Mr X says he has spent considerable time pursuing this matter and says the Council should compensate him in this regard. But a complainant will inevitably be caused some time and trouble making the complaint. Generally, we could not say a remedy is appropriate unless we find fault with how the complaint was dealt with and that this led to additional time and trouble.

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Final decision

12. I will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely I could add to the Council’s response or achieve anything more for Mr X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman