Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to reports of harassment from neighbours. This is because we are unlikely to achieve anything more to add to the Council’s investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss X says she has complained about harassment from neighbours and the Council has failed to deal with her complaints properly.
2. She says this has caused her a lot of distress and she feels she is not being treated fairly due to her race.

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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 we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Councils have a general duty to take action to tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB). But ASB can take many different forms; and councils should make informed decisions about which of their powers is most appropriate for any given situation.
7. In this case I have seen information showing the Council has acted appropriately and asked Miss X for further information. However, there is no corroborating evidence for it to take further action so it referred her to other agencies as necessary. However it also seems to have received counter complaints. And it was the Police that made the decision to serve Miss X with a warning notice.
8. In these circumstances we will not investigate as we are unlikely to achieve anything to add to the Council’s investigation.
9. I also note in response to Miss X’s continuing complaints, the Council’s ASB unit has provided her with information on how to complain to the Police, how to complain to the complaints unit about her dissatisfaction with the ASB team together with information on how to seek assistance regarding health issues.
10. With respect to the allegation that the Council has discriminated against her under the Equality Act, our view is that the Equality Act is not relevant to these issues.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. This is because we are unlikely to be able to add to the Council’s investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman