Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to investigate her complaint about noise from building works during 2020. This was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s failure to respond properly to her complaint about noise from a building development near her home during the Covid-19 lockdown period in 2020. She says the work should have been postponed until people were not at home from work and that proper noise monitoring should have taken place.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Miss X says the Council should have postponed work which was carried out during March-May 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown period. She complained to the Council in April 2020 and says she did not receive a proper response. She says the Council should have considered the levels of noise generated and that it should have postponed the work until after the pandemic when fewer people were at home.
6. The Council apologised for its failure to address her complaint properly but does not consider that it could have either prevented the works taking place or sufficiently restricted the hours of work. The works were not subject to any government restrictions at the time and were programmed within normal daylight working hours. Because they involved pile-driving to support a railway embankment there were limits to the mitigation which the developers could employ.
7. It was reasonable for Miss X to complain about the Council’s response to her noise complaint in 2020. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate her complaint about noise from building works during 2020. This was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman