Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to communicate with the complainant through the phone. There is not enough evidence of fault to warrant an investigation. Moreover, any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr Z says the Council sent him a letter regarding his council tax and told him to make contact if he had any questions. However, the Council will not take any of his phone calls and will not speak to him.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

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

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A (6))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. The Council is entitled to manage contact from citizens which consume a disproportionate amount of officer time or are repetitive or serve little or no purpose.
6. The Council has provided Mr Z with the email address of its monitoring officer as a single point of contact and made it clear it will not respond to contact, he tries to make any other way. If Mr Z wishes to complain to the Council, or request services or any other information for a clear purpose, it is open to him to use the email address he has been given.
7. Therefore, there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.
8. Moreover, without evidence of the Council denying Mr Z access to necessary services, it has not caused him significant enough injustice warranting the Ombudsman's involvement. So, we will not investigate his complaint because it does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr Z’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant an investigation. Moreover, any injustice is not significant enough to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman