Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the conduct of a council officer and the Council’s handling of her complaint about the matter. This is because neither issue caused her significant injustice separate from the decisions on her planning applications and if Ms X disagreed with the decisions it would have been reasonable for her to appeal.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Ms X, complains about the actions and conduct of a council officer who was involved in several of her planning applications. She says she raised her concerns with the Council but she is unhappy with the way it dealt with them. She wants the Council to properly investigate her complaint and take disciplinary action against the officer.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a government minister. We may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal but cannot investigate if the person has already appealed. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(b), as amended)
5. The Planning Inspector acts on behalf of the responsible Government minister. The Planning 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.

6. We cannot investigate a complaint if it is about a personnel issue. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5a, paragraph 4, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. We do not investigate all the complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider various tests. These include the alleged injustice to the person complaining. We only investigate the most serious complaints.
9. I understand Ms X is unhappy about the officer’s conduct outside work but neither this nor the Council’s handling of her complaint about the matter causes her significant injustice.
10. Ms X is most directly affected by what she sees as an inherent bias by the officer from the officer’s involvement in her applications and if there is any suggestion that the Council as local planning authority has reached the wrong decision it would be reasonable for her to appeal. While Ms X says she is not complaining about the Council’s decisions the Planning Inspectorate can decide if they were correct. So although it cannot consider complaints about the conduct of council officers it can overturn a decision to refuse permission if it considers it was wrong.
11. If the Planning Inspectorate considers a decision is correct, any concerns about the officer’s conduct outside work and Ms X’s inference of bias cannot have caused significant injustice as it did not wrongly affect the decision. In these circumstances the issue of the officer’s conduct is too closely linked to the outcome of Ms X’s applications to consider it separately.
12. We cannot in any event investigate whether the Council should take disciplinary action or change the terms of the employee’s employment as these are personnel matters which are barred from investigation as set out at Paragraph 6.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the actions Ms X complains about did not cause her significant injustice. If Ms X believes the officer’s involvement in her applications wrongly affected the outcome then it would have been reasonable for her to appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman