Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about two conifers dying as there is no evidence of fault and the complaint is late.

The complaint

1. Mr M says that a number of years ago, the Council placed a grit bin on the pavement next to his conifer hedge, which caused two of his conifers to die.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to the Ombudsman about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D)
4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council.

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

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How I considered this complaint

5. I reviewed Mr M’s complaint and the Council’s response. I shared my draft decision with Mr M and invited his comments.

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What I found

6. Mr M complained to the Council in November 2020, that a salt bin placed on the boundary of his property was responsible for the death of two of his conifers, due to lack of sunlight and salt spillage. Mr M says this occurred a number of years ago.
7. After receiving no response, Mr M contacted the Council in December 2020. The complaint was recorded and he requested £60 to replace the conifers.
8. The Council wrote to Mr M saying it could not find any record of a grit bin ever being placed at the location. Street view images from May 2012 do not show a grit bin at the location so there has not been one in place there for the last eight years.
9. The Council require a complaint be made within 12 months of an issue occurring or the complainant becoming aware of the issue. It is reasonable to see if the conifers recover after the grit bin is removed before complaining, but this would have been obvious some years ago. The Council does not consider there are exceptional reasons to consider the complaint now and will take no further action.
10. There is no evidence of fault by the Council causing the death of the two conifers. Street view images online from 2009 and 2012 show there may have been something on the footway next to Mr M’s trees before 2009, but they also show the trees were already dead or dying in 2009.
11. Not only is Mr M’s complaint to the Council and to us late, therefore, it is about something which dates back too far to investigate effectively. We could not decide the trees died because of something the Council did or failed to do.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is late and there are no good reasons to investigate it so long after the original events.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman