Summary: Mrs B complained that the Council had acted unfairly towards her in respect of planning issues on land near her property over many years. We will not investigate the complaint because the events are too old.

The complaint

1. Mrs B complained that Basildon Borough Council has acted unfairly towards her in respect of planning issues on land near her property over many years. This has caused her and her family significant and ongoing distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered evidence provided by Mrs B as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
5. Mrs B and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Planning permission

6. Councils should approve planning applications that accord with policies in the local development plan, unless other material planning considerations indicate they should not.
7. Planning considerations include things like:

• Access to the highway;
• Protection of ecological and heritage assets; and
• The impact on neighbouring amenity.

8. Planning considerations do not include things like:

• Views from a property;
• The impact of development on property value; and
• Private rights and interests in land.

9. Councils may impose planning conditions to make development acceptable in planning terms. Conditions should be necessary, precise, enforceable and reasonable in all other regards.

What happened

10. Mrs B lives in a property on land designated as development land in the 1998 adopted local plan. Originally a developer planned to build on a large area of land including Mrs B’s land and several planning applications have been considered over the years.
11. But in 2021 the Council granted planning permission for a development adjacent to, but excluding, Mrs B’s land. The Planning Committee considered the application. Mrs B submitted objections and spoke at the Committee meeting.
12. In 2022 the Council approved an application to discharge a condition relating to tree removal. Mrs B said that the tree removal had damaged her property. The Council opened an enforcement investigation but concluded there had been no breach of planning permission.
13. In 2023 the developer submitted an application for a non-material amendment to split the previous approval in 2021 into phases. Mrs B has submitted comments, but the application remains undecided.
14. In February 2024 she submitted a complaint to the Council about all these applications and referred to actions taken by the Council going back to 2014 and earlier. The Council responded in March 2024 saying that events going back to 2014 were too old to consider now. The application approved in 2021 had been properly considered including Mrs B’s objections. The application submitted in 2023 had not been decided and so it was too soon to conclude Mrs B’s comments had been ignored.
15. Mrs B escalated her complaint to stage two asking how her land could be removed from the development scheme in the adopted local plan. The Council responded in May 2024 maintaining its position that most of the events were too old to consider now and one application was not yet decided.
16. Mrs B complained to us. She said the Council had proposed issuing a compulsory purchase order for her land in 2002, but that threat was removed in 2006. She wants the Council to agree not to threaten another order for 50 years.

Analysis

17. I understand Mrs B and her family have experienced and continue to experience distress from the ongoing situation in the area. However, all the applications and events she complains about happened well over 12 months ago, in some cases going back over 20 years. Mrs B said the fault and injustice were ongoing, but the specific complaints relate to planning applications decided nearly five years and three years ago. I consider it was reasonable for Mrs B to have complained to us about them at an earlier point. There are no good reasons for us to investigate now.
18. The one application submitted in 2023 is undecided, so it is too soon for us to consider.
19. The Council is in the process of developing and adopting a new local plan and Mrs B has had the opportunity to contribute her views to that.
20. The issue of a compulsory purchase order happened over 20 years ago which is too old to consider now, and we would not be able to achieve Mrs B’s desired option to prevent one being issued in the future.

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Decision

21. We will not investigate the complaint as the events complained about are too old and there are no good reasons to investigate them now.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman