West Lancashire Borough Council (22 009 613)
Category : Planning > Planning applications
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 01 Nov 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council failing to validate the complainant’s planning application. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. It is reasonable to expect the complainant to use his right of appeal to the Planning Inspector.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, says the Council refused to validate his planning application and failed to reply to his associated Article 12 notice.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a government minister. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(b))
- The Planning Inspector acts on behalf of the responsible Government minister, and can considers appeals about delay in deciding an application for planning permission and decisions to refuse planning permission.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and our Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X says the Council has asked him to provide unnecessary and expensive reports in order to validate his planning application, and has failed to respond to the notice he served which explained why its request is unreasonable.
- Under Article 12 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure)(England) Order 2015, if the Council fails to respond to Mr X’s notice within the relevant time period then he may appeal to the Planning Inspector against non-determination.
- I consider it reasonable to expect Mr X to use this right of appeal so, with reference to paragraph 2 above, the Ombudsman will not investigate the complaint.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it would be reasonable for him to use his right of appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman