Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a tree outside Mrs X’s property. This is because there is no evidence of fault in how the Council responded to her concerns.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council has failed to maintain a tree outside her property. She says the tree is causing damage to her vehicle and gates.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 us about something a @council/care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mrs X has made complaints about the tree to the Council since 2015. However, Mrs X did not complain to the Ombudsman until August 2021. Therefore, we have only considered what happened since August 2020. If Mrs X was unhappy with the Council’s actions before this date she could have complained sooner.
8. Mrs X contacted the Council in October 2020 and March 2021 to complain about the condition of the tree. She said tree branches were falling into her property and causing damage to her car and electric gates. The Council responded on both occasions to say that it had visited the site and found the tree did not require any immediate work.
9. Mrs X responded to the Council in March 2021 and provided photos she asked for another inspection and said fallen branches were being getting stuck in the gate. The Council did not respond until June 2021. The Council carried out a further inspection on 23 July 2021 and found again that no works were required.
10. We will not investigate this complaint as there is no evidence of fault in the way the Council has responded to Mrs X’s complaints about the tree. The Council has visited the site when Mrs X has reported a problem and found that no work was necessary. Mrs X may disagree with the Council but in the absence of fault in how the Council reached its decision I cannot criticise it.
11. The Council has acknowledged it took too long to respond to Mrs X between March and June 2021. However, the Council had already told her no work was needed and so whilst it would have been good practice to acknowledge her correspondence it is unlikely we would say this was fault especially as the Council’s position remained unchanged when it visited the tree again in July 2021.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is no evidence of fault in the way the Council responded to her complaints.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman