Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s street-cleaning in his area, nor how it responded to his complaint. Any personal injustice to Mr X from the matter complained of is not sufficiently significant to warrant us investigating. We do not investigate councils’ complaint-handling where we are not investigating the core issue giving rise to the complaint.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council:
1. is doing inadequate street cleaning in his area;
2. failed to address all his complaint issues.
2. Mr X says the village looks untidy and unkempt and he wants the Council to do clean the streets properly.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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.

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

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information from Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. It is our role, as set down in the 1974 Local Government Act, to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation complained of. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of those faults or failures. We will not investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a sufficiently serious or significant matter.
6. We recognise Mr X finds his area to be untidy and unkempt. However, this is not a significant enough injustice to him to justify our involvement, so we will not investigate the complaint.
7. We note Mr X also complains about the Council’s replies to his complaint. We do not investigate councils’ complaint-handling in isolation where we are not investigating the core issue which gave rise to the complaint. It is not a good use of our resources to do so. That limitation applies here so will not investigate this part of the complaint.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because:
• any personal injustice to him from the matter complained of is not sufficiently significant to justify us investigating; and
• we do not investigate councils’ complaint-handling where we are not investigating the core issue giving rise to the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman