Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council leaving her refuse bags in the middle of the pavement. This is because the matter has not caused Miss X any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Miss X, complained to the Council after it left two refuse bags she’d put out for collection in the middle of the pavement. Miss X complained she had to walk around the bags to reach her front door and then go back to remove them. She says it was a health and safety issue which could have caused someone to trip and injure themselves as young children play there and elderly people live nearby. Miss X says the Council did not fully address her complaint.

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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 effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• 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))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Miss X complained to the Council when it left two refuse bags she had placed for collection, on top of her bin, in the middle of the pavement. Miss X also complained the Council did not fully address her complaint and she did not receive the Council’s final complaint response.
7. Whilst I acknowledge Miss X was unhappy the bags were left in this way this matter did not cause her any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to merit an investigation by this office.
8. We do not investigate every complaint we receive. We must focus our limited public resources on those complaints where a complainant has suffered a significant personal injustice as a result of fault.
9. Miss X also complained about complaint handling issues and that she did not receive the Council’s final response to her complaint. We do not investigate complaint handling where we are not investigating the substantive issue as it is not a good use of our limited resources to do so. However, in response to our initial enquiries the Council provided copies of all the complaint responses it sent Miss X. Its final, stage two response is the same letter Miss X provided when she made her complaint to this office. As such, I am satisfied it was received. The Council updated Miss X’s online account the morning after this final response was sent and this appears to have been the cause of some confusion around a further response being sent.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. This is because the matter complained about has not caused Miss X any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to merit an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman