Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s pre-application advice and decision on her planning application. Her complaint is late and there are no good reasons for us to investigate it now.

The complaint

1. Mrs X was a planning applicant. She sought pre-application planning advice in 2017 which indicated her proposed development would be acceptable. She made her application in autumn 2018. The Council refused the permission, for a reason it did not mention in its pre-application advice, in spring 2019. Mrs X appealed to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) which dismissed the appeal in late 2019.
2. Mrs X complains the Council:
1. failed to provide her with an effective pre-application planning advice service;
2. was inconsistent when refusing her planning application and allowing others.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. 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 further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered the information provided by Mrs X, the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code, and Mrs X’s comments on my draft decision.

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My assessment

6. We expect people to bring complaints to us within 12 months of them becoming aware of the events about which they want to complain. Mrs X knew the Council’s decision to refuse her planning application in April 2019. Therefore, she knew from the date of the Council’s planning decision that it did not tally with the earlier pre‑application advice officers had given. Mrs X complained to us in September 2021, so the complaint is late.
7. Mrs X could have complained about the pre-application issue while also pursuing her appeal to the PINS. The pre-application advice was a separate process from the later planning appeal process. Furthermore, even if we did take the PINS appeal decision date as the point at which Mrs X could complain, the complaint would still be late. This is because Mrs X got the PINS decision in late 2019. Even using this later date, for the complaint to be in time, Mrs X should have brought it to us by late 2020, not September 2021.
8. Mrs X says the Council did not tell her about her option to complain to the Ombudsman until June 2021, when it sent her its final decision. But we have existed for nearly 50 years. Information about us is publicly available so it was not necessary for Mrs X to learn about us from the Council’s final complaint response. In any event, Mrs X did not complain to the Council promptly about the pre‑application advice once she knew it might be flawed because the Council refused her planning application. She complained to the Council in November 2020, over a year and a half after the Council’s April 2019 planning decision made her aware of the matter. The lateness of Mrs X’s complaint is not due to the actions of the Council.
9. The relevant date for our determination of whether a complaint is late is the date on which the complainant first knew of the matter complained of, not the date of a council’s final response to their complaint. Mrs X knew about the matter she has complained of in April 2019. So she could have started the Council complaint process then and could have received their final response much sooner, then brought her complaint to us in time.
10. We will only exercise our discretion to investigate late complaints if there are good reasons to do so. There is no evidence which gives good reason why Mrs X could not have brought her complaint to us within 12 months of knowing about the Council’s April 2019 planning decision. We will not consider the complaint further.
11. It is also the case the core of Mrs X’s complaint was about the pre-application advice from the Council. That advice was based on an interpretation of Council policy, and was not in any event binding on the Council when it came to determining Mrs X’s planning application. So even if Mrs X’s complaint was not late, we would not investigate because we could not say the pre-application advice was faulty, only that it was different from the eventual planning decision, a risk Mrs X knew was possible.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons for us to investigate it now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman