Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s grass maintenance and weedkilling service. His claimed injustice is not significant enough to warrant us using public money to investigate. There would be no different outcome achieved for Mr X from us investigating

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council is failing to properly cut and strim the grass, and apply weedkiller, on his local estate and city-wide.
2. He says the matter is having an aesthetically detrimental effect on his local area, depriving himself and others of a pleasant local environment. He wants the Council to do its maintenance work with due care and attention.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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:

• 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))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. We recognise Mr X has been dissatisfied with the standard of the Council’s maintenance of public areas, and considers some of it unsightly. But this injustice is not significant or serious enough to justify us using public money to investigate this complaint.
6. During the Council’s complaint process, officers advised its contractors to review Mr X’s road and do hard surface weedkilling as necessary. An Ombudsman investigation would not now achieve any different outcome for Mr X on this issue.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because:
• the claimed injustice is not significant enough to warrant us investigating; and
• there would be no different outcome achieved from us investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman