Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s street cleaning services in Mr X’s area. This is because an investigation is unlikely to add to the Council’s own investigation or lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s handling of his complaints concerning its street cleaning services which he first made at the end of 2023.

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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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, 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
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants,
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council, including its response to the complaint.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Since the end of 2023, Mr X has been complaining to the Council about its street cleaning services.
6. The Council upheld Mr X’s complaint. It added his road and surrounding roads to its key inspections list to carry out monitoring and undertook to do so until it was satisfied a higher quality service had been achieved. It asked its contractors to carry out refresher training for staff and its managers to monitor its teams following the training. It acknowledged there had been delays in responding to Mr X and registering his complaints and it offered him £50 in recognition of his time and trouble.
7. In responding to my initial enquiries, the Council has confirmed it has been trialling an alternative street cleaning method in Mr X’s area which has proved successful showing an improvement to street cleaning in the area. It says it will be making a permanent change to this new method and that it is now satisfied its contractors are meeting their contractual requirements.
8. We do not investigate every complaint we receive. We will generally not investigate when an investigation is unlikely to usefully add to that already carried out by the Council or lead to a significantly different outcome and in this case, there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because an investigation is unlikely to add to the Council’s own investigation or lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman