Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to respond to Mr X’s complaints about littering and fly-tipping. There is insufficient evidence of fault which has caused injustice to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council’s failure to remove litter and commercial waste from the pavement outside his home. He says commercial waste bins placed near his home cause odours and encourage fly-tipping and the Council should move them to a more suitable location.

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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.

(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’s responses.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X says that waste bins placed close to his home create smells and health risks and they should not be placed near his home. He says that the bins are not properly cleaned and fly-tipping next to them is encouraged by the location. He made a service compalint about the issues.
6. The Council told him that the bins have to be placed where they are accessible for crews to empty them and there is no suitable alternative site. It said that there is a regular street sweeping service but this cannot prevent the public from littering or fly-tipping, which is a criminal matter. The Council did respond to Mr X’s compliments about waste and collected this but limited resources are spread across the whole county and do not allow for immediate responses.
7. We will not investigate this complaint. The Council is the waste authority and it can specify where waste containers should be placed and when they are emptied under the Environmental protection Act 1990. There is no evidence to suggest that the Council ignored Mr X’s reports and it suggested to him how to best report littering or fly-tipping. We would not expect any authority to be able to prevent anti-social actions by the public in a particular area, it can only respond to reports of these matters.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to respond to Mr X’s complaints about littering and fly-tipping. There is insufficient evidence of fault which has caused injustice to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman