Rother District Council (24 008 805)
Category : Planning > Planning applications
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 13 Nov 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a planning application. This is because the Council refused the planning application and the issue did not therefore cause Mr X significant injustice.
The complaint
- The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council’s planning officer wrongly relied on a biased and unprofessional external report in recommending a planning application for approval.
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 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- 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.
- Although Mr X says the planning officer accepted the content of the report without question, he confirms that a senior member of staff intervened prior to any decision being made. I have viewed the planning application details online and these show the Council has now refused the application. I cannot therefore say the issue caused Mr X significant injustice.
- I appreciate Mr X is concerned about what might have happened, but we cannot recommend a remedy for something which could have happened but did not.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the actions complained about did not cause Mr X significant injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman