Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Mr X’s reports about unlawful advertising because Mr X has not suffered a significant personal injustice as a result of the alleged fault.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the council did not register his reports of unlawful advertising trailers on the public highway as a formal complaint, but as service requests. Mr X says the Council hasn’t completed the service requests and it is impossible to get anything done.

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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 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

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X first started to report concerns about advertising trailers on the public highway in 2023. He then complained to the Council about its failure to deal with the issue in 2024.
7. Any complaint about the Council’s actions prior to 12 months before Mr X complained to us is late and I have seen no good reasons to exercise our discretion to investigate it now.
8. While Mr X has continued to report issues with advertising trailers more recently the Council has treated his reports as service requests. It has also refused to consider Mr X’s complaint because the issue he raised didn’t significantly affect him.
9. The Council’s approach aligns with its complaints policy and it is therefore unlikely we would find fault in its handling of Mr X’s complaint.
10. However, even if there was fault we would not investigate the complaint further. This is because we only investigate the most serious complaints and Mr X does not claim any significant personal injustice from the issues raised in his complaint, or from the Council’s handling of the complaint itself.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the Council’s actions have not caused Mr X significant enough personal injustice to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman