Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s actions relating to a planning application. There is no worthwhile outcome we can achieve.

The complaint

1. Mrs X said the Council gave her incorrect advice when it said it did not operate a planning advice service for prospective applicants. Mrs X said the Council did have an advice service, which she found out about subsequently. Mrs X said had she known this, she would not have incurred expense submitting a planning application which was likely to be unsuccessful.

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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 there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (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 Mrs X along with the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. The Council refused Mrs X a planning application. Mrs X said had she been aware of the existence of a planning advice service at the Council, she would have taken advice and she said would not have asked for planning permission to alter her property. The Council investigated Mrs X’s claim and said it could not identify the source of the advice she said she was given.
5. We will not investigate here. This is because it is unlikely we could say whether the Council gave Mrs X incorrect advice and whether this meant there was fault. Additionally, even on a balance of probabilities, were we to identify a fault, we could not say what if any injustice there had been as a result.
6. Finally, Mrs X wants the Council to compensate her for her expense or approve her planning application, and we could not direct the Council to do either of these things.
7. Because of these reasons I have set out, there is no worthwhile outcome we can achieve by carrying out an investigation.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint, because there is no worthwhile outcome we can achieve.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman