Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about delays in the Council reaching a decision on Mr Y’s planning applications. This is because he had a right of appeal to the Planning Inspector and it was reasonable to expect him to appeal if he was unhappy with the Council’s actions.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains on behalf of Mr Y about the Council’s delays in reaching a decision on Mr Y’s planning applications. Ms X says that Mr Y is no longer able to appeal to the Planning Inspector because of the delays in the Council’s decision making processes.
2. Ms X says Mr Y has been caused uncertainty and inconvenience as a result of the Council’s actions. Ms X also complains that there have been delays in the Council responding to her complaints.

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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. (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. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a government minister. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(b))
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.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council. I have also considered information about the planning applications on the Council’s website.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. We cannot investigate this complaint because Mr Y had a right of appeal to the Planning Inspector if he was unhappy with the time taken by the Council to reach a decision on his planning applications.
10. The fact the right of appeal may has lapsed does not mean we can consider the complaint. This is because it was reasonable to expect Mr Y to exercise his right of appeal if he was unhappy with the Council’s actions. Mr Y had an agent, Ms X, working with him on the planning applications and so would have been aware of the timescales for appealing to the Planning Inspector and the risks of not doing so within the relevant timescales. Therefore, we will not investigate this complaint.
11. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue. Therefore we will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about delays in the Council responding to her complaint.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it was reasonable to expect
    Mr X to exercise his right of appeal to the Planning Inspector.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman