Liverpool City Council (23 007 295)
Category : Planning > Planning applications
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 05 Feb 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about planning permission and sale of land because they are out of time and there is no fault by the Council.
The complaint
- Mr X complains that a shop should not have been granted planning permission as the land is liable to flood. He says the land itself was crown land and should not have been sold.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
- We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X says that land, currently occupied by a shop should not have ben sold to the present owners as it was crown land.
- The Council says that the land was never crown land. In the absence of any evidence otherwise the Ombudsman would not investigate this part of the complaint.
- The planning permission to which Mr X complains was determined in April 2022 and is out of time for an investigation as there are no good reasons why the time limit above should be extended. A planning condition requiring that details of flood prevention be provided was discharged in October 2022. Again, this part of the complaint is out of time for our investigation. I accept that Mr X found corresponding with the Council frustrating but, if no reply was forthcoming, Mr X could have made his complaint to this office at that time to avoid any delay.
- Mr X also complains about an advertising hoarding. However, this is some distance from his house and cannot be said to be causing any significant injustice to him. Further, planning permission was granted for this in April 2022 and is, again, out of time for investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman