Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to remove conditions from a planning agreement. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains on behalf of a resident’s association. He says officers removed conditions from a section 106 planning agreement (s106) which were designed by the planning committee to control a development of new homes.
2. He also says officers concealed information and misled the planning committee when determining reserved matters planning applications.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. In 2017 the Council’s planning committee granted outline planning permission for up to 500 homes with all matters reserved. However, the permission was subject to the completion of a s106 agreement.
7. Mr X says the committee decided to require the s106 agreement to refer to specific approved plans which showed the outline of the development and the density of the houses within each part of the development.
8. His complaint refers to the removal of the reference to the approved plans in the s106 agreement.
9. The planning committee decided to approve the outline planning application subject to:

“…the applicant entering into a Section 106 Agreement in accordance with the Heads of Terms below or such other Heads of Terms, or variations to those referred to below, as may be deemed appropriate by the Head of Planning…”

10. The planning permission was an outline approval only, with all matters reserved. This means the allocation of plots or the density of the housing was to be decided by further reserved matter applications.
11. The Council confirms the boundary of the development has not changed from that approved in the outline application.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we have not seen enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman