Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about material dumped by the Council during the refurbishment of a nearby house in 2000. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate it now. There is not enough evidence of a significant personal injustice to Mr X to warrant us investigating, and there is no different outcome we could now achieve.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council dumped material from a house refurbishment in 2000, at the end of a garden next to his property. He says the Council has been breaking the law as it is fly-tipping and he wants the material removed.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with 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))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. We expect people to bring their complaint to us within 12 months of them being aware of the matters complained of. Mr X’s complaint is about events he knew about at the time, and which happened 20 years ago, so the complaint is late. We have discretion to investigate late complaints, but only if we believe there are good reasons to do so. There are no good reasons to use that discretion here. Mr X could have complained to the Council and then to us when the events happened in 2000.
6. There is also not enough evidence of a significant personal injustice having been caused to Mr X by the presence of the material in the neighbouring garden to justify us investigating. It has not had a significant impact on him or his property. I recognise the issue may have annoyed Mr X. But that is not enough injustice to warrant us using public money to investigate now.
7. The Council has told Mr X it will move the waste in the near future. This is an outcome we would have sought if we had investigated, and had it not already been offered by the Council. There is no further or different outcome an Ombudsman investigation would now achieve here.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because:
• the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate it now;
• there is not enough evidence of the matter causing Mr X a significant personal injustice to warrant us investigating;
• there is no different outcome we could achieve.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman