Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to issue a Tree Protection Order for a tree in his garden. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate now, and in any case there is insufficient evidence of fault.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council’s decision to make a Tree Protection Order (TPO) for a tree in his garden.
2. Mr X says the decision to issue a TPO devalued his property and affected his amenity.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to issue a TPO. This is because the complaint is late. The Council made the TPO in June 2022. Mr X complained about the decision and the Council sent a final complaint response in early March 2023. The Council signposted to the Ombudsman at the time. Mr X did not bring his complaint to the Ombudsman until mid-October 2024, 19 months after the Council’s final response.
8. The law says we cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. I have seen no good reason Mr X could not have complained about these issues sooner, and therefore we will not investigate.
9. In any case, even if we did decide to investigate, based on the information seen there is insufficient evidence of fault that would warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman. This is because the Council followed the correct process when it made the TPO. Therefore, we would not investigate in any case.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate now, and in any case there is insufficient evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman