Basildon Borough Council (22 000 632)
Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 04 May 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate the Council’s response to Mr X’s noise complaint as it would not be in the public interest for us to do so.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council has not responded to his complaint about noise from out of hours refuse collections and has refused to respond to his complaint about its complaint procedures.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 it would be reasonable for the Council to continue responding to the complaint (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X complains the Council ignored his complaint about noise from out of hours refuse collections.
- The Council has told me this complaint is at Stage 2 of its procedure and a full response is being prepared.
- While I recognise Mr X is dissatisfied with how his complaint has been handled so far, I do not consider it would be appropriate for us to intervene at this stage. Once Mr X has his final response, if he remains unhappy, he can complain to us again and we can consider the matter fully then.
- Mr X made a further complaint, specifically about the Council’s complaint procedure, as Mr X felt the Council was blocking complaints.
- The Council has told me it apologised to Mr X for an earlier administrative error but that it would not process his complaint as it felt there was nothing it could add. The Council has told me that it is currently reviewing how it deals with complaints and the issue Mr X raised will be addressed within that review.
- I do not consider Mr X is caused a significant injustice from the Council’s response or that it would be in the public interest for us to investigate when the Council confirms it is, itself, reviewing how its complaint procedure.
- For these reasons, we will not investigate.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the Council is still dealing with his substantive complaint and it would not be in the public interest for us to investigate his complaint about the Council’s complaint handling, as a separate matter.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman