Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to flags appearing in public spaces. This has not caused Mr X significant enough injustice to warrant us investigating.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council not removing flags from street lighting columns and other public spaces. He says this means he feels unsafe going out in his community as he believes those who put them up have weaponised them, and it has affected his health.

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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, 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 the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. In Mr X’s area people have attached flags to lighting columns. The Council said it would not remove them as the specific flags are not unauthorised on Council-owned property, it did not consider them dangerous to road users or pedestrians, and it has no power to remove flags from private property or that of other councils.
6. There is no duty in law on the Council to remove items attached to lighting columns or other street furniture. We could not therefore say removing them or leaving them in place amounts to fault by a council.
7. I recognise Mr X may find the flags distressing, but there is nothing inherently offensive in the use of a national flag or some other widely recognised flags. It is not for the Ombudsman to reach a judgement about the significance of a particular flag. This means any distress Mr X may experience from seeing the flags is not a significant enough injustice to warrant the Ombudsman using time and public money to investigate.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is neither enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision nor of it causing Mr X significant enough injustice to warrant investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman