Summary: We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint about the Council replacing benches in a public space. This is because the alleged fault has not caused Mr B a significant injustice.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains on behalf of a residents association about the Council removing and replacing four historic cast iron benches from a public space. Mr B says the Council has wrongly replaced these benches, which could have been repaired, with modern benches which do not match the remaining original benches. Mr B would like the Council to recover and re-instate the original benches.
2. Mr B also complains the Council has not answered his request to know what the Council has done with the old benches.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 an investigation if we decide:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

4. The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr B including photographs of the old and new benches.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. We will not investigate this complaint.
8. We do not start an investigation if we decide the impact of the fault a person complains about is not so significant that we should investigate.
9. The new benches, although not identical, are of a similar style to those they replaced. I find Mr B and members of the residents association have not suffered a serious or significant injustice as a result of the alleged fault which would justify an investigation by the Ombudsman.
10. Mr B may complain to the Information Commissioner if the Council does not provide the information he requested under the Freedom of Information Act. The Information Commissioner is in the best position to decide complaints about freedom of information.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because he has not suffered a significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman