The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to grant planning permission for a barn, and the Parish Council not commenting on the application.
There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant investigation. Even if there has been fault, there is no significant injustice caused to Mr X by the Council’s planning decision to justify us investigating. The Parish Council is outside our jurisdiction.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the Council’s decision to grant planning permission for a barn. He complains: the Isle of Wight Council granted the planning permission based on incorrect information submitted by the applicant; the Parish Council did not comment on the application, despite objecting to previous planning applications for the site.
Mr X considers the permission was obtained unfairly and wants the Councils planning decision to be reviewed.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement; or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision-making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended) We investigate complaints about local authorities and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as parish councils. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34A, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information from Mr X, relevant online planning documents and maps, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X says the applicant misrepresented the amount of hay which can be gathered from nearby fields, along with other inaccuracies which he says mean there is insufficient justification for the barn. The Council considered Mr X’s and others’ objections and decided the applicant had provided adequate justification for the barn at the scale proposed, to be used as storage for hay and machinery. Officers considered the objections and application in their planning report to reach their decision to grant the permission. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision-making process here to warrant investigation.
We can only criticise a council’s decision if there is evidence of fault in the decision-making process which, but for that fault, a different decision would have been made. I recognise Mr X disputes some of the contents of the application and disagrees with the officers’ decision. But it is not fault for a council to properly make a decision with which someone disagrees.
Even if I am wrong and there has been fault by the Council in its decision-making process which would have altered the outcome here, we will still not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council’s planning decision and the development it permits do not cause Mr X a significant personal injustice which would justify investigating. I say this because Mr X lives about 1.5 miles from the development site. The barn therefore has no impact on his property’s amenity and cannot cause him that kind of significant injustice which may give grounds for an investigation. I realise Mr X may be annoyed and frustrated at the grant of the permission because he believes it has been gained unfairly. But feelings of annoyance and frustration are not sufficient injustices to warrant us investigating.
Mr X is concerned the local Parish Council did not comment on or object to the latest permitted planning application for the development, as it had done on previous applications. If Mr X wishes to know why the Parish Council did not comment, he would need to ask that Council. But even if he is dissatisfied with its response, the Ombudsman would not investigate the matter. We cannot investigate the actions or inactions of this or any other parish council because they are not within our jurisdiction.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because: there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council ins its planning decision‑making process to warrant investigation; and even if there has been such fault, there is no significant injustice caused to Mr X by the Council’s planning decision and the development as permitted to justify us investigating; and the Parish Council is outside our jurisdiction.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman