LGO Individual Decisions

Summary: Mr X complained the Council failed to properly advertise a planning application near is property and failed to consider the impact on his residential amenity. There was fault in relation to the advertising of the planning application but this did not impact on the decision to approve the application. We have investigated the issues raised by Mr X about the impact on his residential amenity and found no evidence of further fault.

Summary: X complained about the way the Council dealt with a planning application. X said that their privacy is affected by new development on land at the rear of their home. We had already found fault during a previous investigation from a different person about the same site related to a failure to advertise planning applications in a local newspaper, and during this investigation, we did not reinvestigate this or other issues we had already considered. We did investigate new issues that X had raised but did not find fault, or fault that had not already been remedied by the Council.

Summary: The Council was at fault for failing to consider whether it was reasonable for Ms X to remain in her privately rented property after the notice to quit expired. The Council should have provided interim accommodation sooner. Instead, Ms X and her children lived for 11 months with extensive damp and mould and faced avoidable court costs. To remedy the injustice to Ms X, the Council has agreed to apologise, make payments and backdate her social housing application. We found the Council has a blanket policy which likely caused injustice to others who have not complained. The Council will

Summary: Mr X complained about the Council’s handling and consideration of a planning application for dwellings on neighbouring land. The Council failed to advertise the application in accordance with its own policy but this did not result in something being built that otherwise would not have been.

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s refusal to backdate a Disabled Banding Reduction on Mr X’s council tax. This is because there is no evidence of fault in how the Council made its decision.

Summary: We will not investigate Mr and Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s bin service, and how officers dealt with their complaint. We cannot rule on their claims the Council is fully or partly responsible for damage to their gate or for a break‑in at their home, as they are legal liability issues. It is reasonable for Mr and Mrs X to pursue the liability decisions they seek at court. We do not investigate council complaint or claims handling where we are not investigating the core issues giving rise to the claim or complaint. Other bin service issues do not cause Mr and Mrs X sufficient p

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council has conducted a ‘call for sites’ exercise as part of its Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. The alleged fault has not caused the complainant a significant personal injustice, and the Planning Inspectorate will consider the soundness of the Local Development Plan review in the future.

Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s treatment of planning applications for change of use by a business. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council has failed to take enforcement action on a recent breach of planning regulations because the matter is still being considered.

Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of his neighbour’s planning applications. This is because the injustice Mr X claims is not the result of any fault by the Council.

Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about how the Council has handled her council tax account. We cannot achieve anything by investigating. Mrs X could have reasonably appealed decisions on council tax entitlement to the Valuation Tribunal.