Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal of permission for a jubilee street party, and its response to her complaint. Even if there was Council fault, there is not enough injustice caused by its decision to warrant an investigation. We do not investigate complaints about councils’ complaint-handling when we are not investigating the core issue giving rise to the complaint.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council:
1. refused her and other local residents permission to close their road for a jubilee street party;
2. in response to her complaint, failed to provide evidence of the criteria it says it applied when deciding the application;
3. failed to properly investigate her complaint.
2. Mrs X says the matter has caused upset from loss of opportunity to celebrate the jubilee as a community. She also says the further correspondence and complaint to the Council has cost her time and caused her trouble and frustration. Mrs X wants an apology from the Council Leader and the Director of Transportation for their errors, to be sent to her, the area’s MPs and a local councillor.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained; or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information from Mrs X, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. I realise there would have been upset that the community did not get permission to hold the jubilee street party Mrs X wanted to happen. But even if the Council’s decision on the application involved fault, the street party not going ahead is not such a significant injustice which would warrant us investigating. Once Mrs X knew a street party did not have the permission, she could have organised or attended an alternative event in the area, to mark the occasion with other members of her community. The difference between a street party and the other ways Mrs X could commemorate the occasion is not sufficient to cause her a significant personal injustice and justify an investigation.
6. Mrs X says she spent time and was caused trouble and frustration corresponding with and complaining to the Council on the matter. But we do not investigate councils’ correspondence and complaint-handling in isolation where we are not investigating the core issue which gave rise to the complaint. It is not a good use of our resources to do so. That limitation applies here so we will not investigate this part of the complaint.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because:

• even if there has been Council fault, there is not such significant personal injustice caused by the matter to warrant us investigating; and
• we do not investigate councils’ correspondence and complaint-handling where we are not investigating the core issue giving rise to the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman