Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to reports of fly tipping. This is because the Council has now taken action and further investigation by us is unlikely to achieve a different or more meaningful outcome.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council refused to respond to his reports of fly tipping. He said the fly tipping encourages more crime and is degrading his neighbourhood and way of life. He would like the Council to either remove the fly tipping, or find out who is responsible and force them to remove it.

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 further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

5. Mr X contacted the Council in July 2025 to report that some waste had been fly tipped near to his home. In its complaint response, the Council told Mr X that it could not remove the waste because it was on private land. It signposted Mr X to the landowner who was responsible for managing the land. Mr X complained to us.
6. In September 2025 the Council sent Mr X a further complaint response to tell him that it had issued Community Protection Warnings (CPW) to the landowners, requiring the removal of fly-tipping and litter. It said it would monitor compliance and would take further enforcement action if necessary. It apologised to Mr X for his inconvenience and acknowledged his distress.
7. We will not investigate this complaint because investigation by us is unlikely to achieve a different, or more meaningful, outcome. The Council told Mr X that it could not remove the fly tipped waste and signposted him to contact the landowner responsible. In addition, it later issued a CPW to the landlord which required fly tipping to be removed from the land and it apologised to Mr X for the impact the matter had on him.

Back to top

Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman