Summary: Mr X complains about the Council’s response to his complaint about a neighbour’s trees affecting his amenity. We will not investigate the complaint because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Mr X sufficient to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s response to his reports that leaf fall from trees in a neighbouring garden were causing him a nuisance. He also complains about the misleading way his complaint was handled and about the communication and release of information between the housing officer and an officer from neighbourhood services.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

3. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. I gave Mr X the opportunity to comment on my draft decision and considered what he said.

Back to top

My assessment

7. Mr X is a Council tenant and he reported to it that trees from a neighbour’s garden were causing a nuisance in his garden. A housing management officer contacted a neighbourhood services officer who advised that as the trees were on private land, and not Council land, the Council could not undertake aesthetic maintenance. The officer also advised that there was no presenting danger to residents or the public by the trees and there was no significant overhang into Mr X’s property which required cutting back.
8. Dissatisfied with this outcome and about the way he had been communicated with, Mr X made an SAR request and a formal complaint about the Council’s handling of matters.

Assessment

9. While I understand Mr X remains unhappy that his concerns about the trees have not been resolved, I do not consider there is evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Mr X sufficient to warrant an investigation.
10. We do not generally investigate complaints about complaint handling when we are not investigating the substantive issue.
11. If Mr X is unhappy with the response to his SAR request, it is open to him to contact the Information Commissioner.
12. In responding to my draft decision Mr X says if we do not investigate complaints of complaint handling we are letting councils get away with providing a poor service. However, we do not investigate every complaint we receive. We are funded by the public purse and have an obligation to use the funds allocated to us in an effective, efficient and economic manner. In this case, while Mr X considers there is sufficient tree overhang to warrant tree pruning, this is not the view of the Council. This is disappointing for Mr X but it is not evidence of fault. As we will not investigate the substantive issue, we will not investigate its complaint handling.

Back to top

Final decision

13. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Mr X sufficient to warrant an investigation.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman