Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s enforcement activity against X. There is no evidence X has suffered a significant injustice and there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by us investigating.

The complaint

1. X complained the Council were harassing him through its enforcement activity against him. He said the Council issued him with fines and notices relating to matters outside his control and caused him to be arrested by the police.
2. X said this was an abuse of power and had impacted on his wellbeing. He wants among other things, for the fines to be withdrawn and enforcement activity to be stopped.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate a complaint if it is about action taken by or on behalf of any local policing body in connection with the investigation or prevention of crime. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, Section 26, paragraph 2 as amended)
5. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
6. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.
7. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
8. 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, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

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

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

9. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
10. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

11. X said the Council had wrongly pursued him for various matters from February 2024 onwards, including fines for fly-tipping and notices for property related matters. X also said the Council had colluded with the police to have him arrested and this was an abuse of power.
12. The Council provided information that it was investigating a potential breach of housing regulations against X. It also provided information about several court summons in relation to X’s liability for council tax.
13. We will not investigate this complaint. X has not provided evidence of a significant injustice he has suffered in relation to a specific incident, or decision, and how that had directly adversely affected him. We will only investigate specified complaints of fault in public administration decisions causing significant injustice.
14. Additionally, there is no worthwhile outcome achievable. We are not a review body. In addition to above, our role is to investigate those instances where we can realistically achieve a remedy for a complainant. We could not achieve the outcome X expects. On balance, the matters X has complained about are either not within our jurisdiction, because it relates to police actions, or they come with an appeal right, where a fine or enforcement decision could be appealed and overturned if appropriate.

Back to top

Final decision

15. We will not investigate X’s complaint because there is no significant injustice identified and there is no worthwhile outcome achievable.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman