South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council (23 016 708)
Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 04 Mar 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about missed refuse collections caused by strike action. This is because the law prevents us from investigate matters that affect most of the residents in a council’s area.
The complaint
- Mr X complains that the Council has failed to collect bins for several weeks due to strike action by refuse workers. Mr X also complains about how the Council dealt with his complaint about this matter.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- I cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is about a matter that affects most of the residents in the Council’s area. This places the matter out of our jurisdiction as reference in paragraph 3.
- I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with his complaint. This is because it is not a good use of public funds to investigate complaint handling when we cannot investigate the substantive issues raised in the compliant.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because it affects most of the residents in the Council’s area.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman