Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to prune trees. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision-making process to warrant further investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council’s trees are overhanging his garden and the Council has not properly maintained them.

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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 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))
3. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X says trees overhanging his property cause a safety risk. He has asked the Council to prune the branches or remove the trees, but the Council refused.
7. The Council surveyed the trees recently and reported no safety concerns. It considered Mr X’s concerns under the Council’s adopted tree policy, which says the Council will not remove trees unless there is a safety or legal reason.
8. The Council concluded there were no grounds to prune the trees. It explained that if Mr X thought they were causing a risk, he could report them as being dangerous, but based on the most recent assessment, the trees did not meet the criteria.
9. We are not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. The Council’s process in deciding not to prune the trees involved assessing the situation and applying its policy. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council made its decision to warrant an investigation. We realise Mr X disagrees with the decision, but this itself is not evidence of fault.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant further investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman