Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of reports made to it about Mr X having bonfires. This is because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, complains about the Council’s handling of reports made to it about Mr X having bonfires. He says it is harassing him and sending him threatening letters.

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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.
3. 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)
4. The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. In 2019 the Council received a complaint about Mr X alleging having a bonfire. The Council sent Mr X a letter to advise him about the allegation. The complaint was later withdrawn.
8. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies to these events. As we would reasonably have expected Mr X to have complained to us about these events from 2019 sooner, they fall outside our jurisdiction and will not be investigated.
9. In 2021 the Council received a further allegation of a bonfire on Mr X’s land and it sent him a letter to advise him of this.
10. Mr X made an FOI request, seeking the name of the person who had made the allegation against him. The Council refused his request because it related to third party information.
11. Mr X complained to us about this and that the Council was harassing him by sending out letters to him which contained threats.
12. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 4 applies to the part of Mr X’s complaint which concerns his FOI request. As he can contact the ICO and has a right of appeal to the First Tier Tribunal which we would reasonably expect him to use, this matter falls outside our jurisdiction and will not be investigated.
13. In accordance with normal procedures, when the Council received the allegation Mr X had had a bonfire, it sent him a letter which explained it had received an allegation. The letter contained standard information which advised of the action the Council may be required to take. While I understand this distressed Mr X, it is not evidence of fault by the Council.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman