London Borough of Bexley (23 016 847)
Category : Planning > Planning applications
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 09 Feb 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with the complainant’s planning application. This is because we are unlikely to find fault and the complainant has not suffered any significant injustice.
The complaint
- Ms X has complained about how the Council dealt with her planning application. She says the Council changed the description for the application and added additional elements to the development. Ms X says the amended description misrepresents what she applied for.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Ms X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms X has complained about the Council’s decision to amend the application description and says she did not want the extra parts of the development added by the Council included in the application.
- However, Ms X’s application was retrospective and made to regularise the development. The Council was entitled to change the description for the retrospective application following a site visit to reflect the situation at the site. I am also satisfied the Council has explained why it amended the description. Furthermore, I do not consider Ms X has suffered any significant injustice because of the change to the application description.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault by the Council. Ms X has also not suffered any significant injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman