Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council (24 012 851)
Category : Planning > Planning applications
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 07 Jan 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council considered a planning application. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the way the Council considered the planning application.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council approved his neighbour’s planning application. He says the Council failed to take into account the impact the balcony will have on his privacy.
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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.
(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 on the Council’s website.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because 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.
- Mr X engaged an agent to submit objections to the planning application to the Council. This related to the potential for overlooking and loss of privacy from the rear balcony. The Council’s planning officer report shows that it considered these concerns before deciding to approve the application. The Council is not obliged to send a planning officer to Mr X’s home to consider the impact of the neighbour’s application on his property.
- I find there is insufficient evidence to conclude that any fault has affected the outcome of the planning application, so we will not start an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman