Summary: Mr X complained about the Council’s lack of action in response to his neighbours’ anti-social behaviour. We will not investigate this complaint, as it relates to events that occurred more than 12 months before Mr X complained to us. It is open to Mr X to complain to the Council, and then us, about more recent events.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council did not deal effectively with racist antisocial behaviour from his neighbours which has occurred since 2014. He says it:
• did not properly scrutinise evidence he provided;
• downplayed the neighbours’ behaviour and accused him of intimidating the perpetrators; and
• acted in an unprofessional way.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information Mr X provided and discussed his complaint with him.
4. I considered Mr X’s comments on my draft decision.

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What I found

5. Mr X has experienced anti-social behaviour from his neighbours since 2014. He discussed the issues with the Council however in March 2019 it decided it would take no further action and it closed Mr X’s case.
6. Mr X made a formal complaint to the Council and it provided a final response to him in June 2019. This response told Mr X he could complain to the Ombudsman as the next step if he remained unhappy with the Council’s response.
7. Mr X says following this, two of the officers involved left their employment with the Council, and matters improved for a short period. He did not escalate his complaint to the Ombudsman as he felt the matter was a lost cause.
8. Mr X contacted us 15 months after the Council told him it would take no further action. The reasons he has provided for the delay in him complaining do not persuade me we should use our discretion to consider this late complaint. We should not consider events covered by Mr X’s complaint of 2019 as it would have been reasonable for him to complain to us much sooner.
9. Mr X says there have been further issues more recently. It is open to Mr X to complain to the Council about its actions relating to these more recent events, and then bring the complaint back to the Ombudsman, if the Council is unable to resolve his complaint. We will deal with this as a separate complaint.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because Mr X did not complain to us within 12 months of the matters he complains about, and there is not a good reason for the delay.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman