The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a planning enforcement matter. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council affecting its decision. We also could not say the Council’s actions caused Mrs X injustice and we cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X wants.
The complaint
The complainant, Mrs X, complains the Council has failed to take action against a developer for building too close to her property.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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 or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council confirms the developer has built the new development broadly in accordance with the planning permission and it therefore has no basis to take any enforcement action. There is no evidence of fault in the Council’s decision on this point and we cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X wants, which is for the new development to be demolished or moved further away from her property.
We will not look at whether the Council properly considered the application for planning permission as the decision dates back more than five years and did not affect Mrs X at the time. Mrs X has only recently purchased the property and as part of this process her solicitors should have advised her about any relevant grants of planning permission in the area. In the event her solicitors failed to advise her about the new development she may wish to obtain legal advice about the possibility of making a claim against them.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council causing Mrs X injustice. We also cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X wants.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman