Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to allow a housing development to be built close to Mr X’s property. This is because it is a late complaint and because an investigation would be unlikely to find fault by the Council which caused Mr X injustice.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has allowed the housing development directly behind his property to be built too close to his property. He says it did not take into account the detrimental impact the development has on existing properties and allowed new properties with an inadequate buffer zone and without the minimum distance between properties being satisfied.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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 of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’ which we call ‘fault’. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
5. 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, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, 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

6. I considered information provided by the complainant, including the Council’s response to the complaint.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. In April 2022 planning permission was granted by the Council for the housing development directly behind Mr X’s property.
9. Two years later Mr X complained to the Council that it had not followed its planning guidance when it allowed new dwellings to be built at the rear of his property about 20m away.
10. The Council confirmed the dwellings had been built in accordance with the planning permission granted. With regard to the distance from Mr X’s property, it explained how his single storey extension, built at around the same time, was viewed and it confirmed that even if the housing development plans had included the extension, the decision would not have been different. It said there had been no planning breach and that it could not demolish and re-site the dwellings as Mr X had requested.
11. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies to Mr X’s complaint. The planning permission for the new dwellings was given in 2022 and as we would reasonably have expected Mr X to have made a complaint to us sooner, it falls outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time and will not be investigated.
12. Moreover, it is not our role to act as a point of appeal against decisions properly made by councils with which complaints disagree. We cannot question council decisions if they have followed the right steps and considered the relevant evidence and information. Planning permission was granted for the housing development and there is no evidence to suggest fault affected the outcome of the application.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is a late complaint and because an investigation would be unlikely to find fault by the Council which caused Mr X injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman