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. Mrs X complains about the Council’s handling of her planning application. In summary, she says the process leading to the decision was procedurally unfair, factually inaccurate, and inconsistent with the principles of openness, impartiality and good administration. She says the outcome was a refusal that does not withstand scrutiny of the underlying procedure and cannot be understood without tracing the series of errors, omissions, and misrepresentations that preceded it.
2. Mrs X says these errors were compounded further by failures in the complaint handling, including missing the deadline for responding to her Stage 2 complaint.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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)
5. The law also says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)
6. And it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

7. I considered:
• information provided by Mrs X.
• information about Mrs X’s planning application, as available on the Council’s website.
• the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

8. I appreciate Mrs X says she is complaining about the manner in which the decision on her application was reached, rather than the planning merits of the proposal itself. 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.
9. 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.
10. And with reference to paragraph 5 above, we will not investigate the issues Mrs X has raised about the site notice dates/record. This is because it did not form part of her complaint to the Council, and it is reasonable to expect her to pursue the issue via the Council’s complaints procedure first. I will add, however, that even if this were not the case, it is unlikely we would accept it for investigation, because the restriction detailed in paragraph 8 above is still likely to apply.

Back to top

Final decision

11. 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.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman