Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about litter entering the complainant’s front and rear gardens. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council, and the injustice arising from the alleged fault is not significant enough to justify the Ombudsman’s continued involvement.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr D, says waste from other residents’ overfull refuse bins and from the Council’s refuse lorries, is blowing into his gardens and cellar well.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered:
• Mr D’s complaint to the Ombudsman;
• Information from the Council about its involvement in responding to Mr D’s concerns;
• Photographs sent by Mr D to the Council on 9 April 2019; and,
• Mr D’s response to a draft version of this statement, including recent photographs of litter he has found on his property.

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What I found

4. The Council visited Mr D’s property on 28 February 2019. It noted there were 4 or 5 pieces of litter in the front garden area, 2 or 3 pieces in the cellar well, and 1 or 2 pieces in the back garden. The Council says that by the nature and state of some of the pieces of litter, they appeared to have been there for some time.

Assessment

5. I appreciate it can be annoying to find litter which doesn’t belong to you on your own property.
6. But I have seen no evidence to demonstrate that the litter entering Mr D’s property is as a result of any particular fault in the way the Council collects refuse in the local area. And I do not agree that the Council is responsible for clearing litter from Mr D’s garden which may have blown out of other residents’ bins or been dropped by members of the public elsewhere.
7. And having consider the Council’s observations during its site visit, and the photographs sent to the Council and the Ombudsman by Mr D, I find the injustice arising from the limited volume of litter is not significant enough to warrant the Ombudsman’s pursuing this matter further.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr D’s complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council, and the alleged fault has not caused Mr D to suffer a significant personal injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman