Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s Local Plan and planning decisions relating to land owned by X. Parts of X’s complaint are late and there are no good reasons for us to investigate now. X has also exercised their right of appeal to the Planning Inspector so we cannot investigate the way the Council dealt with their recent planning application. X has also not been caused an injustice as a result of the Council not including the land they own within its defined settlement boundaries.

The complaint

1. X complains about the way the Council has dealt with land they own over the past 20 years. X says the Council has failed to consider their comments in relation to how the land is categorised in its Local Plan. X also complains the Council has refused to grant planning permission for development of the site.
2. X says their company has incurred significant costs as a result of fault by the Council.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal or a government minister or started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6), as amended)
6. The Planning Inspector acts on behalf of the responsible Government minister. The Planning Inspector considers appeals about:

• delay – usually over eight weeks – by an authority in deciding an application for planning permission
• a decision to refuse planning permission
• conditions placed on planning permission
• a planning enforcement notice.

7. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
9. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

10. X has raised issues relating to the Council’s Local Plan which date back to the 1990s as well as historic planning matters which date back more than 12 months before they complained to the Ombudsman. Therefore, these are late complaints and we cannot investigate. We have the power to disregard this restriction where there are good reasons. However X has been aware of the impact of the Council’s Local Plan on the land they own for a number of years and I cannot see why they could not have complained to the Ombudsman sooner.
11. We are also unable to investigate the Council’s consideration of X’s most recent planning application. This is because X has already appealed to the Planning Inspector about the Council’s decision. The Courts have said that we cannot investigate complaints about applications that have been considered by the Planning Inspector just because the Inspector is unable to provide a remedy for any fault by the Council.
12. X is unhappy that their land is not included within the settlement boundary as set out in the Council’s Local Plan. The Council has said it will consider this as part of its review of the Plan. However, the Planning Inspector’s most recent decision makes it clear that the position of the land outside the settlement boundary does not prevent X from obtaining planning permission to develop the site. I cannot see that any failure to include the land within the settlement boundary causes X an injustice. Therefore, we will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate X’s complaint because parts of the complaint are late and there is no good reason to investigate now. We cannot investigate the Council’s handling of X’s planning application as they have appealed to the Planning Inspector. We will also not investigate the issues relating to the defined settlement boundary within the Council’s Local Plan as this does not cause X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman