Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council not conditioning his neighbour’s ground floor window to be obscure glazed as part of its 2022 planning decision. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate it now. Even if we treated the complaint as made in time, there is insufficient significant personal injustice to Mr X caused by the matter to justify investigating and we cannot achieve the outcome he seeks from the complaint.

The complaint

1. Mr X lives next door to a property whose owner received planning permission for a rear and side extension. He complains the Council incorrectly allowed his neighbour to fit a ground floor clear-glazed side window which gives views into his property through Mr X’s half clear-glazed kitchen door.
2. Mr X says the neighbour’s side window causes overlooking into his kitchen, invading his privacy. He says due to a disability he has to use a ground floor shower room near the kitchen door. Mr X wants the Council to require the neighbour to obscure glaze the side window.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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:
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained; or

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement; or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information from Mr X, relevant online planning documents and maps, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. We expect complainants to come to us within 12 months of them being aware of the matter about which they are complaining. The Council granted the neighbour’s permission in summer 2022. The planning documents show the proposed location of the neighbour’s ground floor window and its relationship with Mr X’s property. Mr X complained to us in January 2024. This was 18 months after the Council’s published planning decision, so the complaint is late. We have discretion to investigate late complaints but will only use it if we consider there are good reasons to do so. Mr X has not explained why he could not bring his complaint to us within 12 months. There are no good reasons for us to exercise discretion and investigate the matter now and will not do so.
7. Even if we were to exercise discretion and treat the complaint as made in time, we would not have investigated for other reasons.
8. The neighbour’s development has moved the side elevation of their property closer to Mr X’s. The ground floor clear-glazed window which has caused Mr X’s concerns serves the neighbour’s kitchen. The online approved plans and the photograph Mr X has provided show the relationship between the neighbour’s new ground floor window and Mr X’s existing half clear‑glazed kitchen door. The window and Mr X’s door sit at right angles to one another. Mr X says the distance between them is about 1.5 metres. Any views into his property from the neighbour’s window would be oblique angled. The line of sight is also partially obscured by a foliage boundary. Even if there has been fault by the Council in not requiring the neighbour’s window to be obscure glazed, the planning outcome reached does cause Mr X such significant personal injustice to warrant an investigation.
9. The Council has also confirmed the neighbour’s property has ‘permitted development’ rights. These allow householders whose properties retain those rights to do certain works without needing planning permission. One such permitted development right is to install ground floor windows. If the Council had granted permission for the neighbour’s extensions and there was no kitchen window on the plans, the neighbour would have been able to install a clear-glazed window in the same location without any planning permission. The same built outcome could have been reached without the requirement for the neighbour to use the planning process.
10. The outcome Mr X wants from his complaint is for the Council to require his neighbour to obscure glaze the side window. We cannot order a council to impose a condition on a planning permission it has already granted. To add any condition to the development would now require the Council to revoke the existing permission and re-run the planning process. We cannot order councils to do this. That we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X seeks is a further reason why we would not investigate the complaint, even if it were not late.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because:
• the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate it now; and
• even if we treated the complaint as made in time, there is insufficient significant personal injustice caused to him by the matter to warrant investigating; and
• we cannot achieve the outcome he seeks from his complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman