Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council have approached street cleaning at his address. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council, and not enough evidence of significant injustice to Mr X.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has failed to provide a satisfactory street-cleaning service on the road where he lives and did not respond properly to his requests for cleaning. He also says the Council did not properly address his complaints about the matter.

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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.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. 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.
6. Mr X complains the Council has not cleaned his street often enough, resulting in its poor condition. The Council explained the street is cleaned on an eight-week cycle and provided evidence that residents were asked to move their vehicles before the most recent scheduled clean to allow effective access. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s delivery of the street-cleaning service. And there is not enough personal injustice to warrant an investigation, and doing so would not be a proportionate use of public resources.
7. Mr X also complains of poor complaint handling. We will not investigate how the Council dealt with Mr X’s complaint as it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint handling when we are not looking at the substantive issue.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council, and not enough evidence of significant injustice to Mr X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman