Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a Council delay delivering Mr X new bins and how it responded to his complaint. There is insufficient outstanding injustice and we could not achieve what he wants.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council delayed delivering his new bins. He also says he was not given opportunity to set out his position at stage two of the complaints procedure, which was unfair. He wants the Council to refund him the cost of the bins.

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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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. 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:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. In its complaint response, the Council accepted it had delivered his new bins four working days late. It apologised to him for this. It said there were no grounds to refund his payment for the bins.
7. We will not investigate this complaint. The Council has apologised for the late delivery of the bins, which is sufficient to remedy any injustice caused by the delay. Mr X now has the new bins and so we could not ask the Council to refund the costs of these. We could not achieve what he wants.
8. We will also not investigate how the Council handled Mr X’s complaint. It is not a good use of our resources to consider complaints about complaints handling when we are not considering the substantive matter.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient outstanding injustice and we cannot achieve the outcome he wants.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman