Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council granting planning permission to his neighbour in 2021. The complaint is late and there is no good reason to investigate it now. Even if we had investigated, it is unlikely we would have found Council fault and we also could not have achieved the outcome Mr X wants.

The complaint

1. Mr X and his wife live next door to a property to which the Council’s planning committee granted permission in 2021. He complains the Council:
1. wrongly granted permission for the property to be significantly increased in size, on a small plot with insufficient plant life;
2. failed to listen to his and his wife’s concerns;
3. failed to reply to their objections.
2. Mr X wants the Council to meet him and his wife at their property to hear their concerns and change the approved planning permission, to scale it down.

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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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating; 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 information and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X objected to the planning application in 2021. He contacted the Council again in summer 2021 when he found out the Council’s planning committee had granted it permission. Mr X complained to the Council later in 2021. He complained to us about the 2021 planning matters in June 2024.
7. We expect people to complain to us about something they believe a council has done wrong within 12 months of them becoming aware of the matters complained of. Any complaint made 12 months after someone knows about the complaint issues is late. Mr X knew about the planning matters complained of for at least three years before raising them with us, so his complaint is late.
8. We may decide to investigate a late complaint if we consider there are good reasons to do so. Mr X’s pursuit of the complaint in 2021 indicates he had capacity and ability to complain to the Council and, if he was dissatisfied with the outcome, could have complained to us soon after and in time. Any lack of knowledge of the Ombudsman is not a good reason for us to exercise discretion to investigate late complaints as we have existed for 50 years and information about our service is publicly available. There is insufficient evidence of any action or inaction by officers here causing Mr X’s complaint to us to be late. There are no good reasons to justify us exercising discretion to investigate now.
9. Even if we had investigated this late complaint, it is unlikely we would have found fault by the Council. The planning committee considered the officer report and decided to grant the application. The officer and committee member consideration involved Mr X’s written objections, including the development’s impacts on his property. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s and planning committee’s processes when assessing and granting the application to have warranted an investigation now.
10. We note Mr X believes the Council should have contacted him about his objections before the planning committee granted the permission. The planning process involves a consultation where local planning authorities invite comments from interested parties on relevant applications. Officers, and planning committees where appropriate, then consider those comments when making their assessments and decisions. The consultation process is not a conversation between officers and people who send comments. It was not fault for officers to refer their report to the planning committee, nor for that committee to decide the application, without corresponding with Mr X about his objections.
11. Mr X wants the Council to meet with him and his wife then change the 2021 planning permission by scaling it down. We cannot order councils to change granted permissions. That we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X seeks from his complaint is a further reason why we would not have investigated here.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because:
• the complaint is late and there is no good reason to investigate it now; and
• even if we had investigated, it is unlikely we would have found fault; and
• we could not have achieved the outcome he wants from the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman