New planning complaint decisions

A weekly update on planning complaint decisions

Please note: our decisions are published six weeks after they are issued to councils, care providers and the person who has made the complaint. The cases below reflect the caselaw and guidance available at the time of issue and the individual circumstances of each case.


Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of his neighbour’s planning application. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council affecting its decision.

Summary: We will not investigate Mr 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.

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council failing to validate the complainant’s planning application. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. It is reasonable to expect the complainant to use his right of appeal to the Planning Inspector.

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council has dealt with the complainant’s planning application. This is because the complainant has the right to appeal to the Planning Inspector.

Summary: Mr X has complained that the Council has failed to take action to prevent his neighbour operating a car repair business from his home. We have not found significant fault in the way the Council has responded to his concerns.

Summary: The Council was at fault for the delayed enforcement investigation. This caused Mrs X and Mrs Y an injustice and the Council has agreed to remedy this.

Summary: Mr X complains the Council did not publish on its website an objection to a planning application. He says it is not clear the Council provided the Planning Committee with details of the objection before it made its decision. We have found the Council at fault for not publishing Group A’s objection in full. However, we are satisfied the Planning Committee had access to the objection and do not consider this fault caused an injustice.

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to grant planning permission for the complainant’s neighbour to extend their home in 2020. This is a late complaint and we have seen no good reason to investigate now.

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to approve an application for a Certificate of lawfulness of proposed use or development for a property in the area where the complainant lives. We have not seen evidence of fault in the way the Council made its decision.

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a planning application for a development near the complainant’s home. This is because the complainant has not suffered significant injustice as a result of the alleged fault.

Summary: Mr X complained about the way the Council decided a planning application for a development near his home. He says there were errors in the information presented to, and not all the relevant information was properly considered by, the Council before it made its decision to approve the application. We have not found fault by the Council in the way it determined the application.

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to take enforcement action over a tv aerial which was installed without planning approval. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

Summary: We found fault on Mrs J’s complaint about the Council failing to ensure planning conditions for works on a site near to her home were complied with, including for a Construction Environment Management Plan. It delayed reaching a decision on the submitted Plan for nine months and delayed dealing with her formal complaint. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about . This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. There is @.

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response after the complainant reported an untidy house in his road. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint, brought by his partner Miss Y, about the Council’s response to a structure in his neighbour’s garden, and how it handled their complaint. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify an investigation. Even if the Council were at fault, the matter does not cause Mr X and his family sufficient personal injustice to warrant us investigating. We do not investigate councils’ internal complaint processes where we are not investigating the core issues giving rise to the complaint.

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to grant planning permission for a development next to the complainant’s home. We have not seen evidence of fault in the Council’s actions.

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with planning applications in the area where the complainant lives. This is because parts of the complaint are late. We are unlikely to find fault with the remaining issues complained about. The complainant has also not suffered significant injustice as a result of the alleged fault.

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council has dealt with the complainant’s planning application. This is because the complainant has the right to appeal to the Planning Inspector.