London Borough of Southwark (21 011 780)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Mr X complains about the Council’s failure to remove scaffolding on a neighbour’s property. We will not investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about the Council’s failure to remove scaffolding on a neighbour’s property.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
- The complainant had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision.
My assessment
- Mr X says that there has been scaffolding outside his neighbour’s house for over two years. He asked the Council to remove it. The Council investigated and confirmed that it is not owned by the Council and they cannot find the owner in order to ask that the scaffolding be removed.
- Whilst I appreciate that the scaffolding would be annoying, the Council is only legally bound to seek their removal if it is unsafe. The Council has inspected the scaffolding and there is no evidence that it is unsafe. The Council’s decision to take no further action is therefore not fault. In the absence of fault, the Ombudsman would not investigate this matter.
Final decision
- I do not intend to investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman