Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council has dealt with Mr X’s Council Tax. This is because there is no evidence of fault in the Council’s actions. Mr X has raised other complaints which are late and affect all or most people in the Council’s area.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about a number of issues involving the Council. Mr X says:
• The Council failed to accept his cheque payments for Council Tax and did not provide him with receipts.
• The Council is at fault for highways works it carried out and failed to provide him with accurate information about public transport.
• The Council’s waste collection team took retaliatory action when he raised a complaint in 2019.

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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. 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 investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
5. 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 has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

Council Tax

8. Mr X did not pay correct postage when sending cheques to pay his Council Tax bill. Mr X is responsible for ensuring the correct postage is paid. If he believes the correct postage was paid he should raise this with Royal Mail. However there is no evidence of fault by the Council and so we will not investigate this complaint.

Highways and public transport complaints

9. The complaints raised by Mr X in relation to highways and public transport affect all or most people in the Council’s area. Therefore we will not investigate this complaint.

Retaliatory action

10. Mr X’s complaint about retaliatory action taken by the Council’s waste collection team relates to events which happened in 2019. Therefore, this is a late complaint. We have the power to disregard this restriction where there are good reasons to do so. However I cannot see any reason why Mr X could not have complained sooner.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no evidence of fault in how the Council dealt with Mr X’s Council Tax. Other parts of Mr X’s complaints are late and others affect all or most people in the Council’s area.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman