Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the way the Council dealt with a planning application. We do not consider Mrs X has suffered a significant personal injustice which warrants an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council failed to follow the correct process when considering a planning application for a single temporary meteorological mast (met mast) and associated infrastructure. She also says the Council does not have the expertise nor budget to engage experts to deal with a separate application for a large wind farm in an upland peat area. Mrs X says the Council is not listening to the community and is disregarding environmental policies to achieve additional income.
2. Mrs X wants the Council to listen to and research the community’s concerns and extend the consultation period for a separate planning application.

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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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(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 Mrs X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X complains about the way the Council considered and approved a planning application for a temporary met mast with associated data collection and monitoring equipment and infrastructure. She says this is linked to an application to extend an existing wind farm which will create the largest onshore wind farm in England.
7. Our role is to investigate complaints where the action or lack of action by the Council has caused a direct significant personal injustice to the complainant.
8. The injustice Mrs X claims is that the Council is not listening to the community. This is not a personal injustice. Also, Mrs X wants the Council to listen to resident’s concerns and extend the consultation period. However, this refers to a planning application to extend the existing windfarm, which is ongoing, not for the temporary met mast.
9. I acknowledge Mrs X is concerned about the proposal to extend the windfarm. However, I do not consider the Council’s decision to approve a separate application for a temporary met mast has caused enough personal injustice to warrant an Ombudsman investigation.
10. Mrs X is also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with her complaint. As we are not investigating the substantive issue, it is not a good use of public resources to consider how the Council responded to Mrs X’s complaint. We will not investigate this matter.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we do not consider she has suffered a significant personal injustice which warrants an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman