Summary: We will not investigate Mrs A’s complaint, brought by Miss B, about the Council’s handling of Mrs A’s planning application and complaint. Mrs A’s appeal to the Planning Inspectorate means we cannot investigate the planning matter. There is insufficient significant injustice to Mrs A from the Council’s complaint handling to warrant us investigating.

The complaint

1. Mrs A is a planning applicant. Miss B is her planning agent who complains the Council:
1. advised over several months that Mrs A’s ‘permission in principle’ planning application would be approved, only to refuse it six months later;
2. delayed in dealing with her complaint.

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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. 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. The Planning Inspector acts on behalf of the responsible Government minister. The Inspector considers appeals about:

• delay – usually over eight weeks – by an authority in deciding an application for planning permission;
• a decision to refuse planning permission;
• conditions placed on planning permission;
• a planning enforcement notice.

5. The courts have said that where someone has used their right of appeal, reference or review or remedy by way of proceedings in any court of law, the Ombudsman has no jurisdiction to investigate. (R v The Commissioner for Local Administration ex parte PH (1999) EHCA Civ 916).
6. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information from Miss B and the Council, relevant online planning documents, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. The planning system as set up by national government includes formal appeal routes for planning applicants. We cannot by law investigate Mrs A’s planning applications to the Council. That is because Mrs A appealed to the Planning Inspectorate against the Council’s refusal decision. The result of her appeal is not relevant to our jurisdiction, only that she used that appeal. Her appeal takes the entire planning application matters outside our powers and we cannot investigate.
9. We recognise Mrs A’s complaint raises issues about Council officers’ actions and inactions during the process before issuing its final planning decision. Inspectorate appeals may not consider these issues. However, the courts have said that where someone has used their right of appeal, reference or review or remedy by way of proceedings in any court of law, we have no powers to investigate. The principle set down in this court judgement, as above in paragraph five, applies wherever a complainant has used a formal right of appeal other than through court proceedings, including Planning Inspectorate appeals. This limitation on our jurisdiction applies even if the appeal will not or cannot provide a complete remedy for all the complaint issues raised. So we cannot investigate any part of the Council’s involvement in the planning matters because of Mrs X’s use of her Planning Inspectorate appeal right.
10. We note Miss B says the Council delayed in dealing with Mrs A’s complaint. The complaint process took longer than it might and led to Miss B chasing the Council’s response. But the impacts of this on Mrs A do not amount to a significant personal injustice to her which warrants us investigating. The route for Mrs A to pursue the core planning outcome she wanted was through the Planning Inspectorate appeal, a route she was able to use regardless of Council complaint handling issues.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mrs A’s complaint because:
• her use of her appeal to the Planning Inspectorate takes the matter outside our jurisdiction so we cannot investigate; and
• there is insufficient significant injustice to her from the Council’s complaint handling to warrant us investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman