What type of solicitor do I need?

[WhyCantPeopleBeNice]

I have an ongoing issue with my local authority failing to take action against my neighbours many breaches of planning which is seriously impacting the privacy of my home.
They continually fail to take action, and because they were not responding within the timescales they set, I insisted on my complaint being classified as formal, so I could work within their own guidelines and get a response within (stage 1 15 working days)
It would also allow me to escalate the complaint if necessary to the local Government Ombudsman.
They are refusing to acknowledge a formal complaint!

I am seriously sick and tired of this. Between them failing to do their job, the neighbours failing to comply with their own planning application and us being stuck in the middle of it.

I feel my only option now is to take legal action. Against my council for failing to do their job, but also potentially against the neighbours as a civil case.
I dont know what type of solicitor I need though and would like to contact someone to talk through the issues to understand the potential outcomes as well as costs.
Can anyone advise?

If the LA has refused, without legitimate reason, to accept (and then respond to) your complaint, you can go straight to the Local Government Ombudsman. However, there are a number of legitimate grounds on which a LA can decline to respond to a complaint. Planning and property disputes are expensive to pursue via solicitors - it is worth pursuing all other avenues available eg complaint to your councillor and/or MP although if you are contemplating a Judicial Review of the LA there are tight time limits calculated from the date of decision/action. Depending on the nature of the issue you may need a property or planning specialist. If you Google "Law Society Find a Solicitor" this will take you to a search facility that you can filter by specialism and location.

Thanks for the reply @JennyMule
Brief history - we've had 8 months of breaches, the whole time ive been reporting to Enforcement who claim to have been monitoring the situation.
They did a home visit at month 7 and were exceptionally rude and said they will do nothing other than requesting a retrospective planning application.

Due to the behaviour and my disagreement with the retrospective (especially as this fails to address other fundamental issues) I was then referred to the persons manager. I explained I wanted to work with them, so if she was going to look into the issues I would be ok with 'first contact'

The Enforcement manager was happy with this, and agreed a timescale for them to respond. They didnt respond in that timescale.

The issues escalated with the development being brought into use without the agreed privacy. In 3 weeks Enforcement failed to attend (and still havent) nor have they issued any breach of condition notice - as and when they do issue this, as a minimum I understand they need to allow an additional 28 days for corrective measures to be put in place.

As such, I went back and said you haven't replied as agreed, the situation is escalating I want this recording as a formal complaint.
The response was "I have contacted Enforcement Manager and as there is still a live enforcement case I have been advised that Enforcement Manager will be in touch as soon as they can.
As the matter is ongoing it has not been logged as a new complaint but matters are still logged as open on my files pending the response from Enforcement Manager.
I have a chase up scheduled to ensure that the issues have been addressed."

None of which holds them in any way accountable to time frames or allows me to escalate the complaint.
I have asked them if they wont log this as a new complaint, what status my complaint is against their own corporate feedback policy.
There is no reply.

We have a total loss of privacy, with the development giving them full access to view 2 bedrooms, living room/dining room, kitchen as well as the garden.
We've already had 8 months of builders staring in as the planning application had no restrictions around protecting our privacy and now, they have failed to implement their own landscaping/privacy scheme.
This is on top of:
Building not build as per the plans resulting in light pollution
Increasing the height of the development

There are other breaches all of which the council have stated they wont take action against.

I appreciate the council is terrified of my neighbours taking legal action/ appealing decisions, as they have threatened previously (and highlighted the cost of this to the council within their threats!) but all of this results in the council taking no action against them and us suffering as a result.