Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of the complainant’s planning application. The law does not allow us to investigate where the complainant has already used their right of appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. It would also not be a good use of our resources to look at the Council’s subsequent complaint handling in isolation.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the Council’s handling of her planning application, and the subsequent complaint process. In particular, she says the Council made procedural errors, gave incorrect information, failed to engage or provide feedback, did not follow National Planning Policy Framework requirements to work proactively with applicants, and also relied on unreasonable and unsupported arguments to refuse the application. She says it then failed to record her subsequent complaint and breached associated timescales.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. It says we cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a government minister. The Planning Inspector acts on behalf of a government minister. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(b), as amended)
4. It is also not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered:
• information provided by Miss X and the Council, which included their complaint correspondence.
• information about Miss X’s planning application, as available on the Council’s website.
• the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. I appreciate Miss X is complaining about how her application was handled by the Council, as well as its decision to refuse it. But these matters are related to the planning decision which has been appealed. The Ombudsman cannot investigate when someone has appealed to the Planning Inspector, even if the appeal will not address all the issues complained about.
7. As we cannot look at the main issue being complained about, it would not be a good use of our resources to look at the Council’s complaint handling in isolation.

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Final decision

8. We cannot investigate Miss’s complaint about the handling of her planning application because she has already used her right of appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, and it would not be a good use of our resources to look at the Council’s subsequent complaint handling in isolation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman