Sunderland City Council (22 004 624)
Category : Environment and regulation > Antisocial behaviour
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 18 Oct 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision on Ms X’s neighbour noise nuisance complaint. This is because there is no evidence to suggest fault affected the decision.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I refer to as Ms X, says the Council has not listened to her when she has complained about noise nuisance from her neighbour and that it is wrong to describe what she can hear as foot fall against which it will not take action.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’ which we call ‘fault’. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
- 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
- we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms X complained to the Council about noise nuisance from a neighbour.
- The Council investigated her concerns and listened to noise recordings made of the noise. Having done so, it decided there was no evidence of a statutory nuisance and no evidence on which to base enforcement action against the neighbour.
- It is not our role to act as an appeal body. We cannot question decisions taken by councils if they have followed the right steps and considered the relevant evidence and information. While the Council’s decision is disappointing for Ms X, there is no evidence to suggest fault affected it and we will not investigate the complaint.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is no evidence to suggest fault affected the Council’s decision.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman