Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to Ms X’s report of rubbish littering a Park and Ride car park. This is because the injustice caused to Ms X is limited and insufficient to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Ms X, says the Council has failed to remove rubbish she reported in one of its Park and Ride car parks and that its reporting system, Fix My Street, does not work properly.

Back to top

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:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

5. Ms X complained to the Council that she had reported rubbish littering a Park and Ride car park and that while the job was marked as completed on its online system, the rubbish remained in place.
6. The Council upheld Ms X’s complaint and apologised that she had been given incorrect information about where to report the rubbish. It said it was aware that its Fix My Street service had an historic problem of marking incomplete jobs as completed which it had raised with the service provider. It said it would be checking the area and arranging for clearance of the rubbish.
7. More recently the Council has told Ms X that it has had travellers at the Park and Ride site and that while the site had been cleared, the travellers had returned so the site would be cleared again once the travellers are removed.
8. Ms X says she does not accept the Council’s response because the rubbish she reported is at the other end of the site to where the travellers are located. However, while there may be various deposits of rubbish, the Council has said it will clear the site and I have informed it of Ms X’s comments on the location of the rubbish she reported.
9. While Ms X may be frustrated by the time it is taking the Council to clear the rubbish she reported some months ago, we do not investigate every complaint we receive and in this case there are insufficient grounds to warrant a formal investigation by the Ombudsman.

Back to top

Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the injustice caused to her is limited and insufficient to warrant an investigation.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman