Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council determined its own planning application. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council determined its own planning application. He says he believes communication took place outside legal channels which resulted in a pre-determined outcome.

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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 Mr X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X believes the Council engaged in communication and agreement outside of the planning process when processing its own planning application.
6. The Council, as local planning authority, is entitled to decide its own planning application unless restrictions at regulation 10(a) of the Town and Country General Regulations 1992 apply.
7. Regulation10(a) of the Town and Country General Regulations states:

“…no application for planning permission for development to which regulation 3 applies may be determined—"

“(a) by a committee or sub-committee of the interested planning authority concerned if that committee or sub-committee is responsible (wholly or partly) for the management of any land or buildings to which the application relates; or”

“(b) by an officer of the interested planning authority concerned if his responsibilities include any aspect of the management of any land or buildings to which the application relates.”

8. In this case, the Planning Committee is not responsible for the management of land and buildings to which the application relates; that function will fall to another committee or the full Council. So regulation 10(a) of the Town and Country General Regulations 1992 does not apply.
9. Also, regulation 10(b) does not apply because the decision was made by a committee not an officer of the Council.
10. The planning officer prepared a report on the application which was presented to the planning committee. This included the relevant national and local policies which apply to the application. The report also includes a summary of the objections received and explains why the planning officer considers the application overcomes the objections.
11. The minutes published in the Council’s website show people spoke to the committee with their objections and an officer spoke in support of the scheme. The committee debated the proposal before voting to grant conditional approval.
12. I understand Mr X says the Council ignored the objections received. However, when planning authorities receive planning applications, they must consider relevant planning matters in reaching a decision. These include issues raised by members of the public who comment on the applications. While the planning authority must consider all relevant, material planning objections, it has discretion about what weight to give to them. The Ombudsman’s role is only to consider whether the planning authority acted correctly by considering relevant planning matters, not to reach her own view of them where there is no fault.
13. Mr X believes the Council engaged in discussions about the application outside of the planning process. However he has not provided sufficient evidence on this point to justify an investigation. If he believes a member or members of the planning committee were pre-determined to approve the application, then this is a matter for consideration under the Council’s arrangements for dealing with Code of Conduct complaints.

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Final decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman