Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Mr X’s complaint about bins blocking his driveway and damaging his vehicle. The Council has taken suitable action to address the issue and if Mr X believes it is liable for the damage it would be reasonable for him to take the Council to court.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council’s refuse collection crews leave his bins in a way which obstructs access to his driveway. He says he has complained about this to the council multiple times and the obstruction resulted in damage to his vehicle. He says this has caused stress to him and his family.
2. Mr X also complains about how the Council and its insurer handled his complaints.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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 there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

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

4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. The Act says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. We will not normally investigate complaints about damage to property because of a Council’s action or inaction. This is because in effect such complaints amount to a claim of negligence and such claims are best decided by an organisation’s insurers and, if needed, the courts. Mr X is unhappy with the Council’s refusal of his claim and if he wishes to pursue it, it would be reasonable for him to take the Council to court.
9. Separately, Mr X claims injustice from the Council’s continual placing of his bins in a way which obstructs access to his driveway. However, since Mr X contacted the Ombudsman, the Council has taken action to resolve this issue and Mr X confirms there have been no recent issues of obstruction. This shows the issue is no longer ongoing and it is therefore unlikely investigation would achieve anything more for Mr X. While I appreciate the obstruction was frustrating and caused Mr X inconvenience, we cannot investigate every complaint we receive. We must prioritise the most serious cases and the level of inconvenience caused to Mr X in this case is not significant enough to warrant investigation or any further remedy.
10. Mr X is also unhappy with the way the Council and its insurers dealt with his complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue. So, we will not investigate this issue separately.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because the Council has resolved the underlying issue with the placement of his bins and if he believes it is responsible for the damage to his vehicle it would be reasonable for him to take the Council to court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman