Summary: We will not investigate Mr 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 or to show the issues Mr X raises caused him significant injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains about the Council’s handling of a planning application for development on land near his home. He is concerned documents and plans relating to the application contained errors and were not checked, that the Council did not properly consult local residents and that it ignored his comments and concerns about flood risk.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

4. The Council wrote to adjoining residents about the proposal, put up a site notice and advertised the application in a local paper. This met the statutory requirements for consultation and the planning officer’s report shows it properly considered the comments made by Mr X and others along with the risk of flooding, which is detailed as one of the main issues concerning the application.
5. The Council has provided a detailed response to Mr X’s complaint about documents on the case and it is unlikely we could add to it. I appreciate Mr X remains concerned about some of the documents but it is not our role to inspect them in the level of detail Mr X believes is necessary; we are not auditors.
6. The question for us is whether there is sufficient evidence of fault affecting the Council’s decision and causing Mr X and others significant injustice to warrant investigation. I have therefore reviewed the information available but I have not seen enough evidence to suggest the issues Mr X raises wrongly affected the decision to grant planning permission.
7. The Council’s role was to consider the impact of the proposal and decide if it is acceptable and this is what it has done. It has corrected at least one error raised by Mr X and we could not say the remaining issues wrongly affected its decision to grant planning permission or caused Mr X significant injustice.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault affecting the Council’s decision.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman