Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to grant planning permission for a detached single garage and workshop. We have not seen evidence of fault in the Council’s actions.

The complaint

1. The complainant, I shall call Mr X, says the Council failed to include a condition for rainwater control when it granted planning permission for a detached single garage and workshop in his neighbour’s front garden.
2. He says this has caused flooding to his front garden

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. In 2019 the Council received a planning application for a single garage and workshop from Mr X’s next-door neighbour.
7. Mr X objected to the application. Part of his objection was because the resulting rainwater run off would require large capacity tanks.
8. The Planning Officer prepared a report on the proposal. This includes:

“With regards to the proposed water runoff, the property is within Flood zone 1 and not considered to be at risk of flooding and would have to comply with H3 (rainwater drainage) of Building Regulations 2010.”

9. The Council granted planning permission in July 2019.
10. Mr X has complained to the Council over the last 2years about flooding in his garden which he says is caused by rainwater runoff from the neighbour’s development. He says the Council should have included a condition on the planning permission requiring the neighbour to comply with H3 (rainwater drainage) of the Building Regulations 2010.
11. Planning procedures and Building Regulations are different regulatory processes. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) provides that local planning authorities (LPAs) keep planning conditions to a minimum and should only use them when they satisfy the following tests that they are:
• necessary
• relevant to planning
• relevant to the development
• enforceable
• precise; and
• reasonable
12. The NPPF also say that conditions requiring compliance with other regulatory requirements such as Building Regulations will not meet the test of necessity and may not be relevant to planning. Therefore, there is no fault in the Council not including a condition on building regulations for rainwater.
13. Also, common law requires that owners do not use their property in a way that increases the risk of flooding to a neighbouring property. If a person does carry out acts which results in flooding to another person’s property, they may be subject to civil action.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we have not seen evidence of fault in the Council’s actions.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman