Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about smells coming from a nearby food business. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Mr X, complains about how the Council has dealt with his reports of smells coming form a nearby food business. Mr X says the Council has delayed dealing with the matter and has recently closed the case despite the issue continuing.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. 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)
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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

6. Mr X first contacted the Council about smells coming from a nearby food business in October, 2021. He contacted the Council again in 2022 and in August of that year the Council agreed that the smells constituted a statutory nuisance.
7. The Council contacted the business and the owners agreed to make improvements to their ventilation system. Because the owners were engaging, the Council decided not to issue an abatement notice.
8. The ventilation improvements were completed but Mr X still complained about the smells coming from the business. The Council carried out a week of visits in which they monitored the smells. They considered the results of the monitoring along with the logs that Mr X had provided. The Council concluded that whilst there was still a smell present, it was not at the same level in August 2022 and no longer constituted a statutory nuisance.
9. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to close the case because the improvements made by the business meant the smell was no longer a statutory nuisance. It is not the Ombudsman’s role to decide whether something constitutes a statutory nuisance, that is the Council’s role. There is no evidence of fault in the way the Council made its decision as it carried out numerous visits and considered relevant information before reaching its decision. In the absence of any evidence of fault, I cannot question the merits of a decision which has been correctly made.
10. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with these matters when he first contacted it in October 2021. This is because these events happened too long ago and I see no reason why he could not have complained about them sooner.

Back to top

Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman