Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with her reports of pollution. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault causing her a significant injustice.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about how the Council dealt with her reports of pollution. She says the Council failed to act, that its correspondence was disrespectful and that it accessed her property without her permission.

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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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

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My assessment

5. Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA), councils have a duty to take reasonable steps to investigate potential ‘statutory nuisances’. There is no fixed point at which something becomes a statutory nuisance. Councils rely on suitably qualified officers to gather evidence. Officers may, for example, ask the complainant to complete diary sheets or make site visits.
6. The Council says it met its duties under the EPA. It says it provided Mrs X with diary sheets which it asked her to complete and attempted to carry out site visits to witness the issue. It says that Mrs X failed to complete the diary sheets and has refused to allow unannounced visits. The Council says that it has insufficient evidence that a statutory nuisance exists, but has offered to contact Yorkshire Water to ask it to flush a drain which may be the source of the issue.
7. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about how the Council has dealt with her reports of pollution. This is because the actions it has taken are what we would expect to see in the circumstances and therefore there is insufficient evidence of fault.
8. I will not investigate how the Council communicated with Mrs X or that it visited her property without permission. I do not consider that these issues alone have caused her an injustice significant enough to warrant investigation.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault causing a significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman