Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council not enforcing regulations on her allotment regarding dogs on the site and levels of cultivation by a fellow plot holder. There is not enough significant personal injustice caused to Mrs X by the matters complained of to warrant us investigating.

The complaint

1. Mrs X is a tenant on an allotment site. She complains to us that the Council has not:
1. stopped some plot holders letting their dogs loose on the site;
2. enforced the required standard for the level of cultivation required on a tenant’s plot.
2. Mrs X says dogs loose in the allotments, running over people’s plants, is a nuisance. She says other tenants cannot enjoy their plots because of the dogs’ noise and presence, and it stops them having their own dogs there. Mrs X says other plot holders have had to comply with the rule that 60 percent of a plot must be cultivated, so it is unfair it is not being enforced for one tenant.

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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 or continue 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))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information from Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council says it has not witnessed issues with dogs running around the allotment site. Mrs X disputes this and says a visitor assessing a tenant’s plot saw one of the dogs. Officers say they are keeping under review the plot where Mrs X reports its tenant is not meeting the required level of cultivation.
6. Even if the Council not enforcing here was administrative fault, we will not investigate. We recognise Mrs X may be annoyed by other tenants’ dogs’ presence and noise while on the site, when they should be kept within their owners’ plot. We also understand Mrs X may want cultivation standards to be upheld by all, and be annoyed where a plot holder has not complied. But despite the presence of the reported issues, there has been minimal impact on Mrs X continuing to tend and use her own allotment plot. None of the issues raised with us, nor other matters put only to the Council, cause such a significant personal injustice to Mrs X to justify us investigating.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is not enough significant personal injustice caused to her by the matters complained of to warrant us investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman