Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a planning application. This is because we are unlikely to find fault.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Miss X, has complained about how the Council dealt with her neighbour’s planning application. She says it did not follow the correct procedures before granting planning permission and believes the development will cause damage to her property.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. Miss X says the Council failed to visit the site before granting planning permission and therefore it did not properly assess the application. However, there is no requirement for councils to visit a site to assess an application. In this case, the Council has explained how it was able to determine the proposal without a site visit. I understand Miss X may disagree, but the Council was entitled to decide a site visit was not required.
5. I am also satisfied the case officer’s report referred to the objections raised by Miss X and addressed her concerns before deciding the development was acceptable in planning terms. The case officer was entitled to use their professional judgement in this regard and the Ombudsman cannot question this decision unless it was flawed.
6. Miss X believes the development will cause structural damage to her property. However, any damage to property will be a private civil matter between Miss X and her neighbour. The planning process will also not deal with the requirements of the Party Wall Act.
7. Miss X has complained about how the Council dealt with her complaint and says it did not respond to her correspondence. However, where the Ombudsman has decided not to investigate the substantive issues complained about, we will not usually use public resources to consider more minor issues such as complaint handling.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman