Forest of Dean District Council (21 004 777)
Category : Planning > Planning applications
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 24 Oct 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about information the Council has received on a planning application. This is because the Council has not made a decision on the application and so we cannot know what, if any, injustice Mr X has been caused as a result of a decision the Council is yet to take.
The complaint
- Mr X says the Council has received comments from the local Highways Authority which are factually incorrect about a planning application near his home. Mr X says he is concerned the comments may lead to the Council granting planning permission for a development without insisting that proper highways controls are put in place.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and information about the planning application on the Council’s website.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council has not reached a decision on the planning application and so we cannot make an assessment of any injustice to Mr X. Therefore we will not investigate this complaint.
- We would expect the Council to critically evaluate responses from consultees in light of any other comments it receives from other parties or local people when reaching a decision on a planning application.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot make any assessment on what injustice, if any, Mr X may be caused by a decision the Council has yet to take.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman