Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about planning permissions as there is insufficient injustice to warrant investigation and part of the complaint is out of time.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about a series of planning permissions granted by the Council for development in his village that he considered ill judged.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• 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), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X says that he assisted the Council with developing a local plan for the area. He says that the Council has ignored the plan and this has resulted in inappropriate development in the countryside.
7. Mr X specifically refers to a planning permission granted in 2019. However, this is beyond the 12 months’ time limit (above) and I see no reason why a complaint about this could not have been made to us within that time scale.
8. The Ombudsman would not normally investigate a complaint where there was no specific personal injustice caused to the complainant. The evidence provided does not support any view that there is a personal injustice caused to Mr X which would warrant investigation.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because part of the complaint is out of time and there is insufficient evidence of injustice to warrant investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman