Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council handled a Certificate of Lawfulness application. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains:

• the Council did not notify the public about a Certificate of Lawfulness application. Mr X complains this application was closely related to a full planning application so the Council should have notified the public of this.
• the Council removed comments he made on the planning portal.
• the applicant started works before planning permission was granted so the Council should start enforcement action.
• about complaint handling.

2. Mr X says the actions of the Council have breached his human rights.

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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. 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
5. 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

6. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mr X complained the Council did not notify the public of a Certificate of Lawfulness application. The Council explained this is not a planning application, so it is not required to notify neighbours, display site notices or publish details in the press. Mr X complained this was so closely related to a full planning application on the same site the Council should have been more transparent. The Council explained the Certificate of Lawfulness application and full planning application are separate processes governed by different legal frameworks. I will not investigate this aspect of Mr X’s complaint. The Council followed the correct statutory procedure for the Certificate of Lawfulness application. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation. There is also insufficient remaining injustice. Mr X was not denied a right to comment as comments cannot be considered in the assessment of a Certificate of Lawfulness application.
9. Mr X complained the Council removed comments he made on the planning portal. The Council explained it did not publish public comments on the planning portal due to data protection requirements. I will not investigate this part of Mr X’s complaint. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation. There is also insufficient remaining injustice as Mr X was able to submit his comments for consideration.
10. Mr X complained the applicant had already started work on site before full planning permission had been granted. The Council correctly explained to Mr X that he needed to inform the enforcement team of this issue. I will not investigate this part of Mr X’s complaint. There is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council to warrant an investigation.
11. Mr X also complains about the complaint handling. I will not investigate the matter of complaint handling as it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint handling when we are not looking at the substantive issue.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council handled a Certificate of Lawfulness application. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman