Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a planning application and enforcement because the matter is out of time and there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the Council’s decision to grant planning permission for alterations to a neighbouring property and its refusal to take enforcement action.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Ms X complains about the grant of planning permission for a porch and side window to a property in 2023. She objected to the planning application but the Council concluded that the effect upon her privacy of the side window would not be sufficient to warrant refusal, even if the existing trees and shrubs were removed.
7. In 2025, Ms X complained that the trees had been removed.
8. The Council said that there were no grounds for enforcement of the planning permission as the planning application would have been granted without the trees in situ.
9. A complaint about the planning permission is out of time for investigation as the matter could have been raised with the Ombudsman within 12 months of the grant of planning permission.
10. The decision not to take enforcement action, whilst in time, shows insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. The Council’s original decision took the possibility of the removal of the trees into account. The Ombudsman cannot question the merits of a decision made without administrative fault.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is out of time and there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman