Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council’s street cleaning. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council causing the complainant a significant injustice.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that the Council has failed to maintain an adequate service of street cleaning on the road where he lives and has failed to respond to carry out cleaning when he asked it to do so. Mr X also says the Council failed to properly deal with his complaints about this matter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate 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 continue 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.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X complained to the Council about the level of cleaning on his street. Mr X says he raised a report online in September 2023, about rubbish in the road, but it was ignored.
6. In response to my enquiries the Council has provided a copy of the report made by Mr X in September 2023, which the Council says led to an additional clean being carried out two days later. The Council says that no further reports have been made by Mr X since. The Council confirmed the street is on a 8 weekly schedule. The Council has carried out checks on the street and provided photographs taken during those checks which do not show a littler problem.
7. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. While Ms X may not be satisfied with the level of street cleaning carried out, it is for the Council to decide its frequency and it has been carrying out regular visits to check if additional cleans are required.
8. The Council’s records show that it responded to Mr X’s request for an additional street clean in September something Mr X disputes. Mr X hasn’t raised any further requests in the six months since. Even if there was evidence that the Council did not carry out a sufficient clean in response to his request in September, any injustice caused to Mr X by this would not be significant enough to justify an investigation.
9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with his complaints. This is because it is not a good use of public funds to investigate complaint handling in isolation.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council which has caused Mr X a significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman