Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to grant planning permission for a development next to the complainant’s home. We have not seen evidence of fault in the Council’s actions.

The complaint

1. The complainant, I shall call Mr X, says the Council failed to ensure a developer notified him about a planning application. He says the access to the development will be built on his land.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X including the Council’s responses to his complaint.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code and the planning documents on the Council’s website.

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My assessment

5. The Council received an outline planning application for up to 144 homes and access.
6. The developer completed an application form which included an ownership certificate. This listed the properties of those who owned or were agricultural tenants of any part of the land to which the application related. Mr X’s property is not on the list.
7. I understand that Mr X believes the Council should have ensured the developer had told him about the application. However, the responsibility for correctly completing the ownership certificate lays with the applicant. It is not the responsibility of the Council to determine land ownership. Only the courts can decide this. In any event, development can be built on land not owned by the developer. It is not the responsibility of the Council to check if the landowner has consented, this is a matter between the landowner and developer.
8. By granting planning permission the Council has not given permission for the developer to build on land it does not own. If the developer believes it owns land that Mr X believes belongs to him then this is a civil matter which is for them to resolve, not the Council.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault in the Council’s actions.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman