Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a planning application. This is because the complainant is complaining on behalf of a parish council and not as a member of the public.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, has complained about what happened during a planning committee meeting and says the development approved by the Council will have a detrimental impact on residents living in the area.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We can only accept complaints from members of the public or their authorised representatives. This means we cannot accept complaints from councillors complaining about something relating to their position as a councillor. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26A, as amended)
4. We cannot investigate complaints from public bodies. (Local Government Act 1974, section 27(1)(a), as amended)
5. 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, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The Ombudsman cannot accept complaints made on behalf of a parish council. In this case, Mr X says he is complaining in his personal capacity. However, Mr X is the clerk for the parish council and his complaint is about how the parish council was treated by the District Council and the injustice suffered as a result. Therefore, I do not consider that Mr X is complaining as a member of the public.
8. Furthermore, even if I did agree Mr X was complaining on his own behalf, I do not consider he has suffered any significant personal injustice as a result of the alleged fault.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he is not complaining as a member of the public.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman