Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the cost of the Council’s high hedge complaint service. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our involvement, and in any case, there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our involvement.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the cost of the Council’s high hedge complaint service.
2. Miss X said the cost prevents lower income households from accessing the service.

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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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• 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

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

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My assessment

6. Miss X complained the Council charge a fee of £3,800 for its high hedge complaint service. Miss X said this is not in line with other councils and prevents lower income households from accessing the service.
7. In its complaint response the Council said the fee it charges covers the full costs it incurs to consider a high hedge complaint. It said this is because it does not subsidise any of the costs.
8. The fee the Council charges is set out in its publicly available high hedge complaints policy. This policy appears to be in line with statutory guidance.
9. If we were to investigate, it is unlikely we would find the Council at fault because it is acting in line with its policy by charging the fee to consider high hedge complaints.
10. In any case, there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our involvement here.
11. The Council has discretion to set fees for this service. While other councils may charge different fees, we could not tell the Council to charge a different fee or change its policy to bring it in line with them.
12. For these reasons, we will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council and there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman