Great Yarmouth Borough Council (21 009 238)
Category : Planning > Planning applications
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 07 Dec 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of his neighbour’s planning application. This is because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
- The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council failed to consider the impact of his neighbour’s development on his privacy.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- In 2020 Mr X’s neighbour applied for retrospective planning permission for development carried out without permission from the Council as local planning authority. Mr X does not like the development and wants the Council to remove it. He says it impacts on his privacy and should not be allowed.
- The planning officer’s report sets out the reasoning behind the Council’s decision to grant planning permission and it is not for us to question the officer’s judgement. The Council has clearly considered the impact of the development on Mr X’s privacy and we could not say the decision is wrong.
- Mr X is also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with his complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is no evidence of fault by the Council in the way it reached its decision.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman