Southend-on-Sea City Council (25 009 334)
Category : Environment and regulation > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 19 Oct 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s maintenance of a car park. The claimed injustice is not significant enough to warrant our involvement.
The complaint
- Mr X complained the Council did not clean and maintain a car park. Mr X also complained about the Council’s handling of his complaint.
- Mr X said this caused an impact to the environment.
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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (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
- Mr X complained the Council did not clean or maintain a car park, despite him contacting it many times. Mr X also said the Council took a long time to respond to his complaint.
- Mr X said he believes the Council are not following the law which causes him a personal injustice. Additionally, Mr X said the wider injustice caused is the impact to the environment.
- We will not normally investigate a complaint unless there is good reason to believe that the complainant has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the Council. Based on the information available, I do not believe Mr X has suffered a significant personal injustice and therefore we will not investigate this complaint.
- Additionally, because we will not investigate the substantive matters of the complaint, we will not investigate the Council’s complaint handling because it is not proportionate for us to do so.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the claimed injustice is not significant enough to warrant our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman