West Lancashire Borough Council (24 015 053)
Category : Other Categories > Land
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 14 Jan 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how long the Council has taken to consider and respond to Mr X’s request to buy land from it. This is because it is a late complaint and there are no good reasons why it could not have been made sooner.
The complaint
- Mr X asked the Council if he could buy some land from it. Mr X subsequently complained because he said it was taking too long to respond and proceed with the sale. Mr X was also unhappy with how the Council responded to his complaint about the same matter. Mr X wants the Council to agree a timeline for completion.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X first approached the Council about buying some of its land in early 2022. Mr X said he had to constantly chase the Council for an initial response until early 2023. He then said he was dismayed and unhappy with ongoing response times thereafter, until he got a more definitive answer from the Council, in mid-2023.
- We will not investigate this complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons why Mr X could not have complained to us sooner, when he was dissatisfied with the Council’s progress. Nor will we investigate how the Council dealt with Mr X’s complaint, because it is not a good use of our resources to investigate complaints, where we are not investigating the substantive issue.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons why it could not have been made sooner.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman