Ombudsman will not investigate Staffordshire council's planning decision
South Staffordshire Council’s decision to approve a housing development further away from a bus stop than normally recommended will not be investigated by an Ombudsman, it has been revealed.
The complaint was submitted to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman last year – more than four months before the council’s planning committee approved an application for 92 homes in Wombourne that will be located more than 900 metres from the nearest bus stop last month.
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The Ombudsman’s decision report, which was presented to Tuesday’s Standards and Resources Committee meeting at South Staffordshire Council, did not identify the planning application that sparked the complaint.
The report stated: “We will not investigate this complaint about the council approving a planning application for a residential development which is further away from a bus stop than is normally recommended. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the way the council assessed the application, and the complainant has not been caused a significant injustice.
“I appreciate (the complainant) is unhappy the council decided to grant planning permission for a residential development which is not within the recommended distance of a bus stop. But the Ombudsman is not an appeal body; this means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong.
“Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether the complainant disagrees with the decision the council made.
“In reaching this view, I am mindful that concerns about the distance to the nearest bus stop were referred to in the parish council’s comments within the planning committee report, as well as in the update list presented to the planning committee.
“Relevant planning policies and other material considerations may pull in different directions; it is for the decision maker to decide the weight to be given to these factors. So, although the development is further away from a bus stop than normally recommended, the council was entitled to decide other factors justified the approval of the development.”
