Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a Council officer who was responding to Ms X’s noise complaint. This is because there is no worthwhile outcome achievable.

The complaint

1. Ms X said she was unhappy with how a complaint handler dealt with her complaint about a noise nuisance. She said they did not take account of her conditions and caused her harm.

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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 there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (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.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Ms X said the complaint handler dealing with her complaint was unprofessional, dismissive and did not appreciate she was neurodivergent. She said this delayed her noise complaint from being properly considered.
6. We are already separately investigating the substantive issues Ms X has made to us about noise and therefore she will have an investigation and outcome as to her main complaint. Additionally, we do not investigate complaints about individual officers, because our role is to consider systemic or administrative fault and we cannot direct the Council to take disciplinary action.
7. For these reasons we will not investigate because there is no worthwhile outcome achievable.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint. There is no worthwhile outcome achievable by us investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman