Cornwall Council (24 007 118)
Category : Planning > Planning applications
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 28 Nov 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council considered a planning application. There is no significant injustice to Mr X.
The complaint
- Mr X said the Council did not consider a planning application in a fair and transparent way when it made its recommendations to the planning committee.
- Mr X said this means the committee’s decision to approve the application was flawed consequently. He said this means the site will be overdeveloped and there will be harm to the conservation area.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X was dissatisfied about what he saw as being flawed reasoning contained in a planning officer’s report to the Council’s planning committee. This was in relation to a planning application made by an Arm’s length body (ALB), for a development in the town centre near where Mr X lives.
- The Council considered Mr X’s complaint and responded to the points he raised. It also explained because the application was made by an ALB, it decided the application would go before a planning committee.
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. 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 by an organisation. In addition, we will not normally investigate a complaint where the complainant is using their enquiry as a way of raising a wider community campaign about something of general concern but where they have not suffered injustice.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no significant personal injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman