Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s discharge of several pre-commencement planning conditions. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council and it is unlikely further investigation would achieve any worthwhile outcome.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council has refused to consider several pre-commencement conditions relating to a planning permission granted on appeal by the Planning Inspectorate. He wants the Council to consider the conditions now as he believes it will prove the developer cannot implement the planning permission.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. A grant of planning permission confirms proposed development is acceptable in planning terms. Where a proposal is mostly acceptable but the body granting permission believes some fine-tuning is required to overcome minor issues, they may set conditions to the planning permission. Standard conditions include the need to carry out a development in accordance with the approved plans, and to commence the development within a certain period of time- usually three years.
5. There are also often conditions which require final details to be approved by the council prior to commencement of the development. These are called pre-commencement conditions.
6. Mr X complains the Council has not considered the pre-commencement conditions attached by the Planning Inspectorate to the grant of planning permission for development near his home. He believes that when the Council considers the information/details required to comply with the conditions it will realise the development cannot proceed.
7. While it may be true that the conditions impact the developer’s ability to implement the planning permission, the Council’s role is to consider any applications by the developer to discharge the condition and it confirms no such applications have yet been made. Once the developer has submitted an application to discharge the conditions the Council must consider their proposal. In the event the developer starts work on the development without first receiving the Council’s approval the Council has confirmed it would consider this as an enforcement issue.
8. The Council’s approach to the issue is entirely rational and in accordance with the relevant processes. There is no evidence of fault and it is unlikely investigation would achieve any worthwhile outcome as we cannot force it to consider the issues until the developer submits an application.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council and it is unlikely we could achieve anything by investigating at this stage.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman