Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to grant planning approval for fencing for a development near his home. This is because there is no evidence of fault in how the Council considered and approved plans.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council failed to protect his amenity when it discharged a planning condition approving boundary treatments to a new development. Mr X says his property is overlooked by the new development.
2. Mr X also says that his property is impacted by drainage issues from the highway and the Council failed to take this into account when it granted planning permission.

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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 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))
4. 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

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and information about the development on the Council’s website.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. We have previously considered a complaint from Mr X about the Council’s decision to grant planning permission for the development. We cannot revisit the issues Mr X raised as part of his previous complaint.
8. We did not address drainage issues as part of our consideration of Mr X’s complaint. Mr X has provided evidence to show that this has been an issue at his property since 2015. This pre dates planning permission being granted for the development in 2019. Mr X raised his concerns as part of his objections to the original planning application. Mr X has not raised this as an issue with the Ombudsman until March 2022. Therefore this is a late complaint.
9. We have the power to disregard this restriction where there are good reasons for doing so. I cannot see any reason why Mr X could not have complained to us sooner about his concerns regarding drainage from the development. He could have raised this as part of his previous complaint but did not do so. If Mr X believes this should have been addressed as part of our investigation he could have challenged our decision at the time.
10. Since our previous investigation the Council has approved details of landscaping for the development. Mr X is unhappy because part of the landscaping on his boundary has been set back from his land to avoid party wall issues. Mr X is also unhappy because he says the fencing and boarding put up is not sufficient for retaining the land behind it and he is concerned the neighbour land will collapse onto his property.
11. I have reviewed photographs provided by Mr X as well as the approved plans. The Council does not have to consider party wall issues when granting planning permission. This is a civil matter between neighbouring landowners. The Council cannot refuse planning permission on grounds that one party is building away from a boundary to avoid entering into a party wall agreement. Therefore there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and we will not investigate this complaint.
12. The fence does not cause any impact on Mr X’s amenity. It runs along his driveway and I cannot see that it could cause an impact on his house in terms of overshadowing, overlooking or it being overbearing. Therefore there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and we will not investigate this complaint.
13. The manner in which the fence has been constructed and issues around any land retention measures are not planning matters. These are building regulation matters and will likely require building regulation approval as part of approval for the wider development. This is being carried out by a private building inspector and not the Council. Therefore there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and we will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman