Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of his neighbour’s planning application. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains about the Council’s handling of his neighbour’s retrospective planning application. He says the Council was biased in favour of the applicant (his neighbour), failed to visit his property, did not properly consider the impact of the development in terms of loss of light and privacy and did not correctly assess the possible increase in flood risk resulting from it.

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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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

4. We are not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong.
5. While Mr X believes the planning officer should have visited his property there was no requirement for them to do so. Mr X provided photographs of the development from his property and the officer visited the application site itself to help inform their decision.
6. The planning officer’s report addresses the objections received about the development and explains why it is acceptable. I appreciate Mr X disagrees with the officer’s judgement but I have seen no evidence of fault in the way they reached their decision; the law does not therefore allow us to question it.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman