Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to issue a Scoping Opinion. There is not enough evidence of fault in the process the Council followed before issuing the Opinion. And the claimed injustice is speculative.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall refer to as Mr X, says the Council failed to ensure it received a response from a statutory consultee before issuing a Scoping Opinion. He says it failed to apply its own policies on water and the water environment.
2. Mr X says he and other residents will suffer because of a lack of water supply infrastructure and future water supply resulting from water neutrality.

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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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X complains the Council issued a Scoping Opinion on a Scoping Report for a proposed development including (but not limited to) 375 new homes, a primary school, burial grounds, and allotments.
7. He says the Council did this without receiving a response from a local water company which is a statutory consultee.
8. A Scoping Opinion is not a planning application. The Council has not received a planning application for the proposal. Therefore, no permission has been granted for the development and the injustice claimed by Mr X is speculative.
9. The Ombudsman cannot remedy speculative injustice. A development that might or might not happen is speculative.
10. When it receives a planning application for developing the site, the Council will have to make a decision according to national and local planning policies.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. There is inadequate evidence of fault in the process the Council followed before issuing the Scoping Opinion. Also, Mr X has not suffered a significant personal injustice which warrants our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman