Summary: Ms X complains that the Council will not publish all objections to a planning application. We will not investigate this complaint because there is no fault by the Council and no significant personal injustice caused to Ms X.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains that the Council will not publish all objections to a planning application.

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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, 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

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
5. I considered the complainant’s comments on my draft decision.

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My assessment

6. Ms X says that the Council acts without transparency by refusing to post all objections to a planning application on their website.
7. The Council says that the objections are referred to in the Planning Officer report.
8. There is no legal requirement on the Council to publish all objections to a planning application on a Council website and so the Council’s actions are not fault. The planning applications themselves do not cause such a significant personal injustice to Ms X to warrant investigation.

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Final decision

9. I do not intend to investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council causing significant injustice to Ms X.
    

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman