South Kesteven District Council (22 014 367)
Category : Planning > Planning applications
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 13 Feb 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a planning application. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault affecting the Council’s decision and we cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X wants.
The complaint
- The complainant, Mrs X, complains about the Council’s handling of an application for development on land adjacent to her property. She says the planning officer misled her about their consideration of the application and failed to carry out a site visit.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- We are not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, even though a complainant may disagree with it.
- While Mrs X believes the planning officer should have visited the site there was no requirement for them to do so. The planning officer’s report shows a good understanding of the relationship between the proposed development and Mrs X’s home and addresses the concerns Mrs X raised.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault affecting the Council’s decision. We also cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X wants, which is to refer the matter to the Planning Inspectorate for review. The Council has made its decision and issued a decision notice and there is no third party right of appeal against the decision to the Planning Inspectorate.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman