East Suffolk Council (24 021 418)
Category : Planning > Planning applications
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 01 Apr 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a planning application. This is because we are unlikely to find fault and the complainant has not suffered significant injustice.
The complaint
- Mr X has complained about how the Council dealt with a planning application. He says the Council failed to notify residents and he could have lost the opportunity to comment on the proposal.
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, or
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(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 the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Councils are required to give publicity to planning applications. The publicity required depends on the nature of the development. However, in all cases the application must be published on the Council’s website.
- In this case, the Council says it wrote to the neighbouring resident and erected site notices. Mr X says additional consultation should be carried out for controversial applications. However, I am satisfied the Council publicised the application as required. Furthermore, even if there was fault with how the Council notified residents about the application, I do not consider Mr X has suffered any significant injustice as a result. The application was withdrawn, and planning permission has not been granted for the development.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault. Mr X has also not suffered any significant injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman