Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a planning application. This is because there is no evidence of fault affecting its decision.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains about the Council’s handling of a planning application affecting his parents’ property. He believes the Council has discriminated against his parents, failed to properly consider the impact of the development and did not give proper weight to material planning considerations. He says the development will blight his parents’ property and wants the Council to pay them compensation.

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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 it is unlikely we would find fault. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I reviewed Mr X’s complaint, the Council’s response and the planning application documents. I shared my draft decision with Mr X and considered his comments.

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What I found

5. Mr X’s parents, Mr and Mrs Y, live in a property in the Council’s area. Their neighbour applied for planning permission to extend their home in 2020 and the Council wrote to Mr and Mrs Y to notify them of the application.
6. Mr X says Mr and Mrs Y were unaware of the implications of the proposal and did not therefore object to it. He says the Council failed to consider the Equality Act 2010 and its public sector equality duty and discriminated against his parents. He says the development is out of keeping with the character of the area, will cause overlooking and blight his parents’ property. He believes the Council failed to give proper weight to an objection by the town council and photographs provided by the applicant’s agent.

Discrimination

7. Mr and Mrs Y are elderly. Mr X says they did not comment on the proposal because they were unaware of its significance and were unable to engage in the process. He says the Council failed to remove or minimise disadvantage, meet their needs and encourage them to participate in the planning process.
8. Mr X accepts the Council wrote to his parents about the application and has provided a copy of the Council’s letter, but he considers the Council should have done more.
9. The consultation process does not encourage participation; it provides a means for affected people to comment on an application if they wish to do so. The Council’s letter was clear about the nature of the development and provided advice about how Mr and Mrs Y could view the plans and comment on the proposal. This included the means to do so without access to a computer or the internet. The letter also provided a telephone number for the planning department so, had they wanted to do so, Mr and Mrs Y may have contacted the Council for help. The Council’s consultation met its statutory obligations under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended) and there is nothing to suggest it should have done more.

The Council’s decision

10. Even if we could say the Council had not done enough to engage with Mr and Mrs Y we also could not say the outcome would or should have been different. The planning officer’s report shows the Council took account of all relevant material planning considerations and there is no evidence of fault in the way it reached its decision. Mr X disagrees with the planning officer’s view but it is not for us to question their judgement. The report clearly explains the reasons why the Council decided the proposal was acceptable and we cannot say it should have given more or less weight to certain issues.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman