Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to grant planning permission for a new business near Mrs X’s home. This is because there is no evidence of fault in the way the Council reached its decision to grant planning permission. The Council has also not had an opportunity to consider a complaint about planning enforcement matters linked to the development.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council has granted planning permission for new business to operate near her home which will be open to the public. Mrs X says more members of the public visit the premises than under the previous use which has caused issues with parking locally. Mrs X also says that she and other residents are affected by noise and smells from the premises.
2. Mrs X says the Council’s failure to properly control the use of the property have caused her and other local people significant distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
4. 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

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council. This includes information about the planning application on the Council’s website.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The Council received a planning application for the conversion of existing business premises into another similar business. The Council found that information provided by the applicant about land ownership was incorrect and required the applicant to provide more accurate information and also a more accurate description of the proposed business operations.
8. The Council granted planning permission. The Council produced a case officer report which considered the impact of the business on the area including on people living nearby. The report acknowledges the new business will likely result in increased visits from the public but concluded that:

“Given the design, scale, massing and siting of the proposed development the proposal would not cause significant harm to the amenities of any occupiers or adjacent occupiers through loss of light, overshadowing, overbearing impact, loss of privacy, noise, smell, traffic or other disturbance.”

9. The report also considered the issue of parking in the local area. It said there was already a parking area serving the business but required this to be formalised with parking bays marked out. The report said the number of spaces was in line with standing advice from the local highways authority. The Council imposed two conditions on the planning permission requiring the parking area to be marked out before the business was brought into use and also to retain the parking area and not allow it be used for any purpose other than parking.
10. There is no evidence of fault in the way the Council has considered the planning application. The Council has considered the impact of the development on local people. This includes consideration of noise, smells and impact of the development on local highways including parking. Mrs X may disagree with the Council’s conclusions but in the absence of fault in the way the Council reached its decision we cannot criticise it.
11. Mrs X says the car park is now being used to store materials linked to the business and local roads are blocked by delivery vehicles. The Council has said it will investigate these issues and whether the business is in breach of planning permission. Mrs X’s complaint to the Council was in relation to its decision to grant planning permission. If she is unhappy with the actions of the Council’s planning enforcement team she should raise a complaint with the Council first before coming to the Ombudsman. This is because the law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the council knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5))

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is no evidence of fault in the way the Council reached its decision to grant planning permission for a new business near her home. The Council has not had an opportunity to respond to Mrs X’s complaints about planning enforcement matters.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman