Sheffield City Council (19 000 215)
Category : Environment and regulation > Trees
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 28 May 2019
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Miss X complains the Council refuses to prune the tree outside her house. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because we have not seen any evidence of fault in the Council’s actions.
The complaint
- Miss X complains the Council refuses to prune the tree outside her house despite pruning other trees in her road.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it is unlikely, we would find fault.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
What I found
- Miss X asked the Council to prune the tree outside her house.
- The Council says it has carried out a crown lift on the tree and pruned it back from surrounding properties. I asked the Council to check its records to ensure it had worked on the tree directly outside Miss X’s home. It has confirmed it pruned the tree outside her house and on the opposite side of the road.
- The Council also says the tree meets highway standards and no further work is necessary at this time.
Assessment
- Miss X says the Council has not pruned the tree because there were cars parked outside her home so it would not have had access to it on the day it says the work was completed.
- However, the Council has double checked its records, confirmed it completed the work and provided photographs. It says it carried out a further inspection 2 weeks after the work was done. And no further pruning is necessary.
- I understand Miss X disagrees with the Council. However, further investigation is unlikely to find fault. And we cannot force the Council to cut the tree back any further.
Final decision
- Subject to any comments Miss X might make, my view is that the Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because we are unlikely to find fault. And we cannot achieve the outcome she is seeking.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman