London Borough of Islington (22 010 445)
Category : Planning > Planning applications
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 09 May 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s consultation on proposed changes to a local park, and failures in the complaint procedure. We consider the complainant has not suffered a significant personal injustice which warrants an investigation.
The complaint
- The complainant, I shall call Ms X, says the Council failed to comply with statutory rules and regulation when conducting consultation about changes to a local park. She also complains about the Council’s failure to follow its complaints procedure.
- Ms X says the Council has wasted public money and resources. She has also spent much time corresponding with the Council.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms X complains that a consultation carried out by the Council in June 2021 on proposed changes to a local park was flawed. The changes to the park were subject to the planning process and have now received planning permission. Ms X says the Council has wasted public money and resources. However, we do not consider that she has suffered a significant personal injustice.
- There have been delays in the complaint procedure. However, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are not dealing with the substantive issue.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we do not consider she has suffered a significant personal injustice because of the process the Council followed when making changes to the park. And there is insufficient injustice caused by failures in the complaints procedure alone to justify an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman