Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a planning application. This is because there is no fault in the Council’s actions.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has failed to help local people understand plans for a development on land near his home. Mr X says the developer failed to carry out a proper consultation about the plans and plans are too complex to expect local people to understand.
2. Mr X says the plans are in excess of what should be allowed on the site and are in breach of the Council’s Local Plan.

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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, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant information about the development on the Council’s website.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Council is not responsible for the actions of the developer when carrying out the consultations prior to submitting the application. The only time pre application consultation is legally required is in relation to planning applications for wind turbines.
7. The law requires the Council to keep a register of planning applications and to make this available for public inspection. The Council makes applications available to the public on its website. Mr X says many local people do not have access to the internet. There is no duty for the Council to send unsolicited details of planning applications to local people, except to notify them when a planning application has been received. When notifying local people about receipt of a planning application the Council is not required to send full plans unless someone specifically requests this in response to a notification. Therefore, there is no fault in the way the Council has made information about the application available to local people.
8. The Council is also not able to provide local people with assistance in raising objections to a planning application nor is it able to help them to understand and interpret plans. The Council must been seen to be impartial and must consider comments made by the public about the application as well as submissions from the applicant. Therefore, there is no fault in the Council not providing local people with this assistance.
9. The Council has not reached a decision on the application. When the Council does reach its decision it must consider local and national planning policies. If
   Mr X is unhappy with the Council’s decision he may raised a new complaint. Mr X should raise this with the Council first before coming to the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman