Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of his neighbour’s planning application. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault affecting its decision to grant planning permission.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council failed to properly consider or respond to his concerns about his neighbour’s planning application. He says the Council dismissed his objections and has not shown how it reached decisions on key points relating to the impact of the proposal on his property. He also complains about the Council’s handling of his complaint about the matter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the documents relating to his neighbour’s planning application, which are available via the Council’s website. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. We are not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong.
5. While Mr X believes the Council failed to properly consider his objections or the impact of his neighbour’s proposal on his property I am satisfied the evidence shows it did. The planning officer’s report considers the impact of the proposal on Mr X’s property but reaches the view that it is acceptable. This was a decision the Council was entitled to reach and I have seen no basis for us to question it. We also cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants, which is for the Council to revoke the planning permission.
6. Mr X has raised other concerns about the Council’s handling of the application given several related planning enforcement issues he has reported. But the Council has explained these are separate matters and I am satisfied with its explanation on this point. The enforcement issues are still under investigation and it is therefore unlikely we could achieve anything more for Mr X by investigating these issues now. Once the Council has decided how to proceed, and if Mr X wishes to raise a new complaint about its handling of the enforcement issues, he may do so.
7. Mr X is also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with his complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault affecting the Council’s decision.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman