Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to stop locking the access gates at a recreation park, or how it made that decision. There is no significant injustice to X.

The complaint

1. X complained the Council were at fault in the way it decided to stop locking the security gates at a recreation park. X said these flaws meant there were serious governance failures in how it approached this matter, and they were now worried about how that decision will affect them as a resident.

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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 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

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council, and I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. X complained to the Council, concerned at how it had made a decision to stop locking the security gates each night, at a recreation park. They said this now meant there was unrestricted vehicle access.
5. They also said the Council misrepresented some of the information it shared, explaining how the decision had been made. X said they are now worried about whether they will be affected by this.
6. I will not investigate this complaint. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide the impact of the fault a person complains about is not so significant that we should investigate.
7. We will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by an organisation. In addition, we will not normally investigate a complaint where the complainant is using their enquiry as a way of raising a wider community campaign about something of general concern, but where they have not suffered a direct injustice.
8. X also complained about the adequacy of the Council’s complaint handling procedures, saying they had to unnecessarily escalate their complaint to stage two. I will not investigate this aspect of X’s complaint either. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we decide not to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate X’s complaint because there is no significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman