Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council refused to prune two trees which overhang her property. This is because there is no evidence of fault in the Council’s decision.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council refuses to prune two trees that overhang her property and cause significant leaf-fall. She says she and her husband have to spend a lot of time and money clearing their garden of the leaves and having their gutters cleared. Mrs X says this is difficult for her and her husband because of their age and limited income.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 or it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information Mrs X provided and the Council’s response to her complaint.
5. I sent Mrs X a copy of my draft decision. I considered her comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Background

6. Outside Mrs X’s house there are two trees owned by the Council.
7. Mrs X says that branches from the trees overhang her property, are very bushy and heavy. She says that significant numbers of leaves from the trees fall onto her house and garden, along with some small branches in high winds. This means that Mrs X and her husband have to regularly pay to have the leaves cleared from their gutters and spend significant time clearing the leaves from their garden. They struggle with this due to their age and limited income.
8. Mrs X says the branches are usually about 2 metres from her house and worries that in high winds the trees or branches might fall on her house. However, Mrs X has not said the trees are causing or have caused any damage to her property.
9. Mrs X has asked the Council, on several occasions, to prune the trees to reduce the overhanging branches and number of leaves falling on her property. The Council has refused to prune the branches, most recently in May 2020.
10. The Council’s Tree Strategy states the Council will only prune Council owned trees for specific reasons. The policy specifically states the Council will not prune trees to reduce excessive leave fall, overhanging branches or perceived risk that a tree may damage a building.
11. The Council also inspects trees on a rolling 3-year programme. The Council says it last inspected the trees outside Mrs X’s home in 2019 and the inspector decided no pruning was required under its policy. Mrs X says this was during the winter and so the inspector could not see what the trees were like when full of leaves. Mrs X has sent recent photographs of the trees to the Council.

Analysis

12. The Council’s policy sets out specific reasons it will, and will not, prune trees that it owns. The reasons Mrs X has asked the Council to prune the trees are in the list of reasons given in the Council’s policy that it will not prune.
13. There is no evidence the trees are causing issues that means the Council would prune the trees under its policy, such as damage to Mrs X’s property.
14. The trees have been inspected in line with the Council’s policy and the Council has seen pictures of the current state of the trees. It has decided that no works are currently required to these trees.
15. The Council’s decision not to prune the trees is consistent with its policy so there is no reason to start an investigation. I appreciate Mrs X may disagree with the policy. However, the Ombudsman does not act as an appeal body and we cannot intervene simply because the Council makes a decision, or has a policy, that someone disagrees with.

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Final decision

16. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is no evidence of fault in the Council’s decision.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman