Summary: Ms X complained about the Council’s failure to take action over construction noise near her home. The Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault which has caused injustice to Ms X.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Ms X, complains about the Council failing to take action over a noisy construction site near her home. She first complained in late 2018 and says the Council has failed to prevent work continuing at all hours and days of the week. She also complained that the Council sent a letter instead of an email and misspelled her name.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered all the information which Ms X submitted with her complaint. I have also considered the Council’s response.

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What I found

4. Ms X complained to the Council about noise from a construction site near her home. She said the noise was occurring outside normal working hours and at weekends. The Council sent officers to investigate including out of hours, but they could not identify anything which would constitute a statutory nuisance.
5. The Council wrote to inform Ms X of the outcome, but she says she asked it to email her because of mental health issues. The Council apologised and sent its findings by email. It told her that it would need to measure the noise levels from a habitable room in her home to confirm if there was a statutory nuisance. Ms X complained because the Council misspelled her name in its communication.
6. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. The Council has a duty to investigate complaints about noise nuisance but there is no duty to serve an abatement notice if there is insufficient evidence to do so.
7. There is insufficient evidence of injustice caused by the Council misspelling Ms X’s name. the communication was correctly addressed, and she was the only recipient.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault which has caused injustice to Ms X.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman