Summary: We have upheld this complaint because the Council failed to carry out a review of a planning application it considered in 2016, despite promising to do so. The Council has now resolved the matter by completing its review. We will not investigate how the Council considered the planning application or about any conclusions it reached in its recent review. This is because the permission was granted too long ago, and I see no good reason to exercise discretion and investigate this now.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Ms X, complains about planning permission that the Council granted to a neighbour in 2016.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. 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)
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Ms X complains that the Council failed to properly deal with a planning application for a neighbouring property in 2016. She says the Council’s actions resulted in damage to her property. In May 2022, the Council responded to Ms X’s complaint saying it would carry out a review of how the application was considered.
8. When assessing this complaint, I concluded that we would likely to find fault if we were to investigate it. This is because the Council did not carry out its review of the planning application as promised in May. I therefore asked the Council to consider remedying this by carrying out a review within one month. It has now completed its review and sent its findings to Ms X.
9. I will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about how the Council considered the planning application in 2016. This is because the application was considered some six years ago, and I see no reason why Ms X could not have complained sooner. I will also not investigate the conclusions reached in the Council’s review of this application. This is because it would not be possible to consider the review without considering the original application.
10. Ms X also complains that she has recently become aware that the development has caused structural damage to her property. Any damage caused to her property is a private matter which has a legal remedy. The Council is considering legal action against the neighbour, but this does not alter our decision not to investigate the original planning permission.

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Final decision

11. We have upheld this complaint because the Council failed to carry out the review as promised. It has now completed its review which is an appropriate remedy to the injustice caused to Ms X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman