Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s delay in repairing a faulty streetlight. There is insufficient evidence of any significant personal injustice which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council’s delay in repairing a faulty streetlight near his home. He says the light was placed in response to anti-social behaviour in the area and the Council took months to respond to his report about the light and it remains faulty.

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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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or

any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X says he reported a faulty streetlight to the Council in February 2023. After making several reports without any progress he made a complaint to the Council in July. The Council inspected the light in August but wrote to him in September stating its engineers had found the lighting column working correctly.
6. Mr X made a further complaint and in December the Council told him it would repair the light by the end of the month. This did not take place and he made a further complaint. The Council ‘s contractor wrote to say it would complete the work by the end of February and apologised for the delay.
7. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
8. There is no statutory duty for councils to repair streetlighting within a particular timescale or to provide it at all. The Council has responded to Mr X’s complaint and apologised. Although his frustration at the delay is understandable, there is insufficient personal injustice in this case to warrant an investigation.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s delay in repairing a faulty streetlight. There is insufficient evidence of any significant personal injustice which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman