Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council considered a planning application for a property near the complainant’s home. We have not seen enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council failed to follow its own policies when it approved a planning application for a property near her home. She says the Council:
• failed to publicise the application correctly
• ignored objections from the community; and
• ignored comments from the police

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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 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

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

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My assessment

5. The Council received an application to change the use of a detached property from a dwelling house to a children’s home for up to four children plus staff.
6. The Council has provided photographic evidence to show a site notice was displayed at the site. Its records also show it wrote to properties which shared a boundary with the application site, notifying the occupiers of the application.

7. Planning authorities must publicise all planning applications. Depending on the nature of the development, publication may be by newspaper advertisement and / or site notice and / or neighbour notification (The Town and Country Planning (General Development Procedure) Order 1995.) The notice will invite ‘representations’ for or against the application and explain how those representations may be made. The opportunity to make representations is not the same as being consulted. The authority must consider all material representations it receives but officers will not enter a dialogue with members of the public who have objected to a planning application.
8. The evidence I have seen shows a site notice was erected on a lamp post. The notice may have at some point been turned around by unknown people, or blown by the wind, however this is not the Council’s responsibility. The Council’s records also show it wrote to properties with shared boundaries. The Council is not required to provide proof of postage.
9. Planning controls the design, location and appearance of development and its impact on public amenity. Planning controls are not designed to protect private rights or interests. The Council may grant planning permission with conditions to control the use or development of land.
10. Mrs X says the Council has ignored objections received from residents and the comments from statutory consultees such as the police.
11. Local Planning Authorities must consider each application it receives on its own merits and decide it in line with their local planning policies, unless material considerations suggest otherwise. Material considerations concern the use and development of land in the public interest and include issues such as overlooking, traffic generation and noise. People’s comments on planning and land use issues linked to development proposals will be material considerations. Councils must take such comments into account but do not have to agree with those comments.
12. It is for planning officers and committee members to balance both national and local policy and decide to approve an application or not. We must consider whether there was fault in how the Council did this, not whether the decision was right or wrong. Without fault in the decision-making process, we cannot question the decision itself.
13. Mrs X also says the Council has not followed its policies. The planning officer’s report lays out what legislation has applied to the case and why the officer has made their recommendation. The officer decided the proposal was acceptable. This is a professional judgement and decision the officer is entitled to make.
14. The planning committee considered the officer’s report and heard from people both for and against the application before making its decision. While Mrs X may disagree with the decision, this does not make it wrong.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because I have not seen any evidence of fault in the way the Council decided to approve the application to change the use of a dwelling house to a care home.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman