Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to a report of fly-tipping. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council and an investigation would not achieve anything.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complained about the Council’s response to her report of waste fly-tipped on private land. Mrs X has questioned if the Council wrote to the owner of the land as it said it would.

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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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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Final decision

5. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. In response to our enquiries the Council has provided proof of the action it told Mrs X it would take and so there is no evidence of fault. The waste in question has been removed and so an investigation could not achieve anything more.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman