Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a planning matter. This is because we could not achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mr X.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains about the Council’s actions in relation to a planning application which was granted on appeal by the Planning Inspectorate. He believes the Council should have done more to challenge the appeal decision and claims injustice from the decision to grant 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 Council
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council’s role was to determine the original application for planning permission, which it did. It decided to refuse the application but the applicant appealed to the Planning Inspector, as was their right. The Planning Inspector considered the applicant’s appeal and granted planning permission. Its decision was legally binding and the only way to challenge it, which was open to the Council or to any member of the public, was to take the matter to court.
6. Mr X suggests the Council should have done more to defend its decision and should have considered challenging it at court, but the Council has explained there was no basis for this and it is not for us to say the Council is wrong. In any event we could not say that any further defence or challenge would have been successful, and we cannot therefore say that any failure altered the outcome.
7. We have no powers to overturn the Planning Inspectorate’s decision and because we cannot say the outcome would have been different we cannot recommend any remedy for the injustice Mr X claims from the grant of planning permission itself.
8. Mr X also concerns about the Council’s handling of environmental health issues but these are separate from this complaint and we will therefore deal with them separately.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council is not responsible for the decision to grant planning permission and we could not achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mr X by investigating its actions.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman