Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council dealt with a planning application for a property in the road where the complainant lives. We consider he has not suffered sufficient personal injustice because of the Council’s actions to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council failed to correctly process a planning application for a property in the road where he lives. He says this is a violation of the conservation area and the building is now harmful to the character and appearance of the conservation area.

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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 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 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

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

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My assessment

5. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the Council. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures of the Council.
6. I acknowledge Mr X’s concerns that the development and alterations to the roof of the property in question has resulted in an imbalanced roofline on a pair of semi-detached houses in the road where he lives. I also acknowledge the road is located within a conservation area. However, having reviewed information provided by Mr X and the Council,  I do not see that he is personally and significantly affected by the development.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because I do not consider Mr X has suffered a significant personal injustice which warrants our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman