Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about a grant of planning permission as we are unlikely to find fault.

The complaint

1. Mrs X says the Council failed to follow its own policy and procedure in granting a planning permission for Site Y.

Back to top

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))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mrs X which included the Council’s reply to her complaint.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

5. The Council granted a change of use for a site near Mrs X’s home in July 2025. She says the Council failed to follow its procedures properly. Her main issues are:
• the application should have been decided by a planning committee.
• amendments to the application should have been consulted on.
• the planning officer stated there were more parking spaces than available.
6. The Council’s reply to her complaint covered these issues and others. It said:
• She had misunderstood the procedure for determining whether a planning application goes to a planning committee. In this case a councillor had not requested it did, as Mrs X believed would happen. And the planning officer decided the other ‘tests’ did not apply.
• The amendment was too minor to require a fresh round of consultation.
• The parking situation was such that it was possible for an extra car to park on the spaces, although if other cars then parked they would trap the extra one in.

Analysis

7. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether Mrs X disagrees with the Council’s decision.
8. The Council has here clearly explained why it has followed its procedures properly. The decisions not to consult again, not to go to planning committee and parking spaces available are professional judgement decisions. It is unlikely we would find fault in how it took the decision.

Back to top

Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman