Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of environmental protection issues involving Ms X. This is because past events fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time and it is open to Ms X to engage with the Council if she wishes it to investigate any current problems she is experiencing.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council conducted a long campaign of harassment and victimisation against her and her family when its Environmental Protection Team investigated allegations that had been made against her and that it failed to respond to her own environmental complaints about others.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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. We investigate 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 continue 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council, including its response to the complaint.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Ms X complained to the Council about the actions of its Environmental Protection Team and its investigations into allegations about her behaviour and those she had made about others.
8. The time restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies to past events. As we would reasonably have expected Ms X to have complained to us about them sooner, they fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time and will not be investigated.
9. With regard to any recent issues, it is open to Ms X to engage with the Council and provide any evidence she has to support her concerns. We do not investigate every complaint we receive and there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation here.
10. There was delay by the Council in responding to the complaint Ms X submitted earlier this year, for which it has apologised. While this delay is noted, we will not investigate complaint handling when we are not investigating the substantive issue.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because past events fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time and it is open to Ms X to engage with the Council if she wishes it to investigate any current problems she is experiencing.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman