Westminster City Council (23 006 652)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to Ms X’s reports of fly tipping and rubbish accumulation on a bridge close to her property. This is because the Council is currently taking action to address the matter and there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I refer to as Ms X, complains about the Council’s response to her reports of fly tipping and rubbish accumulation on a bridge close to her property. She says she has been frustrated in trying to deal with the Council and that it should act to collect the rubbish.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, 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, or
- there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Following some initial confusion by the Council about the boundaries for its responsibility for rubbish collection on the bridge close to Ms X’s home, the Council has now confirmed that it is currently working to replace a fixed barrier with opening gates so its sweeper can gain access to the rubbish safely and remove it.
- We do not investigate every complaint we receive and as the Council has apologised to Ms X for its delay in resolving the problem and is currently taking action to address it, there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation of Ms X’s complaint by the Ombudsman.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the Council is currently taking action to address the matter and there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman