Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council failed to adequately publicise a planning application. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council and we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains about the Council’s positioning of a site notice relating to a planning application. He says the position of the site notice was inconsistent with other cases and he believes this was the result of an attempt to conceal the notice from public view. Mr X is unhappy the Council has granted planning permission and wants the Council to revoke the permission and start the process again.

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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. Legislation requires the Council to publicise planning applications in certain ways. Applications such as that concerned in this case can be publicised through site notices placed “on or near the land to which the application relates”.
5. Mr X believes the location of the site notice put up by the Council to publicise the application was inadequate but it is not for us to say it was wrong. It broadly complies with the legislative requirements and although the Council could have placed the notice somewhere else this does not show fault in the location it chose.
6. While Mr X says he did not have a chance to comment on the application as he did not see the site notice the evidence available shows the planning officer considered the issues he was concerned when reaching their decision. We could not therefore say that had the Council positioned the site notice elsewhere, and had Mr X commented on the application, the outcome would have been different. We also cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants, which is for the Council to revoke the planning permission and start the process again.

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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 and we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman