Summary: Mr B complains about how the Council handled beach hut licence issues from 2014 onwards and refers to fault in rent charges in 2019. The Ombudsman is discontinuing the investigation because there is insufficient injustice relating to the beach hut rent to warrant further investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains, on behalf of a Beach Hut Owners Association, about the Council changing beach hut licences between 2014 and 2017. He also refers to fault in 2019 by the Council regarding overcharging on the annual beach hut rent.

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What I have investigated

2. I have considered the second part of the complaint about events in 2019.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Ombudsman cannot investigate late complaints unless he decides there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to the Ombudsman about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D)
4. The Ombudsman has the power to start or discontinue an investigation into a complaint within his jurisdiction. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8))
5. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. He must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. He provides a free service but must use public money carefully. He may decide not to continue with an investigation if she believes:

1. the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
2. the injustice is not significant enough to justify his involvement, or
3. it is unlikely he could add to any previous investigation by the Council, (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

6. In 2019 the Council wrote to Mr B about the annual rent for the beach huts. It accepted it had made an error:

“In this case this resulted in an annual overcharge of £3.98. I apologise for this and can confirm that the Council are now looking into how it can effectively and sensibly resolve this matter. I can confirm that all customers will receive this money back and once the method of credit is confirmed we will advise customers.”

7. In view of the level of financial injustice I do not see there is a basis to warrant the Ombudsman’s further intervention in this matter. Furthermore, the Council has already undertaken to remedy the overcharging issue with the beach hut owners and further investigation would not add to this.

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Final decision

8. Subject to further comments by Mr B and the Council, I intend to discontinue the investigation.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

9. I have not investigated Mr B’s complaint about the Council’s actions in 2014 to 2017. As set out above the Ombudsman expects a complaint to be made within 12 months usually. In this case Mr B and the Beach Hut Association were able to seek legal advice in 2017 on the matter and I see no reason why a complaint could not have been pursued at that time.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman