Summary: We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to remove waste from the passageway next to his home. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains about the Council’s handling of his request for abandoned waste to be removed from the passageway next to his home. Mr B says the Council initially told him it would remove this waste before later saying the waste was on private land so would not be removed. Mr B says the Council closed the case without properly investigating the matter.

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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 an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

(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 Mr B and have viewed the area on Google maps and Streetview.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council as a local highways authority has a statutory duty to maintain adopted streets. Local highways authorities do not have an obligation to maintain or cleanse private and unadopted roads and paths, which are generally the responsibility of property owners to maintain.
6. The Council says its mapping system shows this passageway consists of several privately owned sections linked to adjoining property – it is not adopted or owned by the Council.
7. The Council says it has no duty to remove waste from such land and it would only get involved where the legal threshold for a statutory nuisance is met. In this case the waste was removed by the tenant responsible.
8. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation into Mr B’s complaint.
9. I have not seen any information to indicate the Council’s assessment of this issue was affected by fault or that the Council is responsible for maintaining this passageway.
10. Mr B says the waste was left in a shared passageway used for multiple homes and was not located behind any private property. But, the information indicates the Council was aware of this. Shared use of a passageway does not mean it is owned or adopted by the Council.
11. So, we will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman