West Northamptonshire Council (26 009 561)
Category : Environment and regulation > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 14 Jul 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s street cleaning services. Any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
The complaint
- Miss X complains the Council is failing to keep the street where she lives clean. She states there is litter everywhere which means she does not want to go outside. Miss X feels it is unfair to pay council tax for services she does not receive. She wants the Council to start fining people for littering and cleaning the streets properly.
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, or
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(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
- We will only investigate complaints where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by an organisation. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter. Although the litter on the street is frustrating for Miss X, any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
- In addition, in the Council’s response to Miss X it confirmed it cleaned Miss X’s street on a regular basis and asked her to continue to make service requests to report littering. Further investigation by the Ombudsman would not lead to a different outcome.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman