Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council handled his requests for street cleaning, fly-tipping reports and his complaints. This is because we have decided any injustice stemming from the matters complained of is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council:
1. failed to deal with his requests for street cleaning, in 2024 and 2025, until he complained;
2. failed to gather evidence of the actions it took in response to his requests and marked the cleaning as complete when it was not;
3. has not proactively addressed his concerns about fly-tipping on a nearby verge;
4. failed to properly consider the repeated nature of his complaints.
2. Mr X say this has caused him injustice because the matter has required his time and effort over two years to get the street swept or rubbish removed. He says he has been caused frustration and inconvenience, and his confidence in the Council’s processes has been undermined. Mr X also says there are pests in the area due to cleaning not taking place, which is a health concern.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. People may complain to us about injustice caused by:
• ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’ by a public organisation we could investigate; or
• the actions of an organisation in connection with privately arranged adult social care.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(1) or section 34C(1)(a)).

4. 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), or section 34B(8)).
5. We will not normally investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), or section 34B(8)).

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information from Mr X and the Council, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The law means we can choose only to investigate complaints where the person has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by the body complained about. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
8. I recognise the circumstances of Mr X’s complaint have affected him as set out in paragraph two above. But the personal impacts he reports are not significant enough to warrant us investigating.
9. Mr X says in his complaint to us that street litter has led to some type of pests in his area. Mr X made no report of a pest issue to the Council related to the litter when he complained, so this is a new matter which has not been put before the Council’s officers. If Mr X has identified pests in his locality, he may wish to report that to the Council now. It would be for officers to decide how to respond to any such report and what action, if any, it should take.
10. We will not investigate the way the Council handled Mr X’s complaint and correspondence here because we are satisfied it did not cause sufficient significant separate injustice to him to warrant us doing so.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the injustice to him is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman