Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s response to his report of a sink hole. This is because the matter complained about has not caused Mr X any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s response to his report of a sink hole. He says it did not attend the site until the following day and then claimed it was unable to locate the sink hole, which he finds impossible to believe. Mr X visited the site three days after his report and found no action had been taken. He then complained to the Council. He says if he had not contacted the Council again no repair would have been completed and the sink hole would have become more dangerous. He is frustrated the Council did not deal with his report professionally.

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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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X complained to the Council three days after he reported a sink hole after he found that no action had been taken to repair it.
7. The Council investigated. It said it attended the site within 24 hours of Mr X’s out of hours report, as required, but it was unable to locate the sink hole. It said this may have been due to poor light and cars parked in the area but also that the sink hole was not located where it expected.
8. On receipt of Mr X’s complaint the Council attended the site again, located the sink hole and put barriers in place to make it safe awaiting repair. It completed the scheduled repairs a few weeks later. The Council partially upheld Mr X’s complaint and apologised that it was unable to locate the sink hole on its initial visit.
9. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because whilst Mr X reports the matter caused him some frustration, it has not caused him any significant personal injustice which is so serious that it warrants the use of public funds to carry out a further investigation. We do not investigate every complaint we receive. We must focus our limited public resources on investigating those complaints where a person has suffered a significant personal injustice as a result of alleged fault by a body in our jurisdiction. This is not the case here. Mr X has further questions he would like answered on this matter, but as it has not caused him any significant personal injustice it is not a complaint we will investigate on this occasion.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the matter has not caused him any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman