Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to take sufficient action over complaints about antisocial behaviour. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault and injustice which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained his neighbour puts his bins out a day early every week, blocking the pavement and reducing his right of way.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Mr X raised reports about his neighbours’ bins with the Council since 2022. However his earlier reports were logged incorrectly which meant the correct team did not receive them.
6. Once the matter was correctly identified the Council’s Enforcement Team visited the location but found the bins at the boundary of his neighbours property.
7. Mr X complained the Council failed to deal with his complaint satisfactorily, and failed to take proper enforcement action.
8. In the complaint response the Council said no enforcement action was taken but it will continue to monitor and revisit the site. It also said the delay was down to Mr X logging the reports incorrectly, not a failure of the complaint handling process.
9. We will not investigate this complaint as the Council dealt with the complaint during the complaint procedure once it had been logged correctly. It may not be the outcome Mr X wanted but I cannot find fault in the Council’s complaint handling process.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to take sufficient action over complaints about anti-social behaviour. There is insufficient evidence of fault or injustice which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman