Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the grant of outline planning permission for a development near the complainant’s home. This is because the decision was made by a body out of jurisdiction.

The complaint

1. The complainant, I shall call Mr X, complains the Council failed to correctly consider a planning application which was eventually approved on appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as the Planning Inspectorate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34A, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X which includes the Council’s responses to his complaint.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Council received a planning application for up to 40 homes on a site near to Mr X’s home. The Council refused the planning application in August 2020 and the applicant appealed successfully to the Planning Inspector (PINs).
7. Mr X argues about the way the planning application was considered by the Council. However, the Council refused it; so it did not cause Mr X any injustice. The planning permission (the cause of Mr X’s possible injustice) was made by a body out of our jurisdiction (PINs).
8. Planning inspectors must look at applications afresh, as if it they are made directly to them, without any prior involvement of the local planning authority. This means that if the Inspector had agreed the application should be refused, it was open for the inspector to do so. The Inspector decided to allow the appeal, granting planning permission.
9. The injustices Mr X claims do not flow from the Council’s actions; they flow from the subsequent PINS decision to grant the permission at the appeal. The PINS is a national government body which the Ombudsman cannot investigate.
10. The Ombudsman cannot require the Council to refuse a future reserved matters planning application.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the decision to approve the planning application was made by a body out of our jurisdiction

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman