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

The complaint

1. X complained about the Council’s response to unauthorised placement of flags on highway structures in its area. They said they had made multiple reports and got no response from the Council, including to their complaint.
2. X was also unhappy the Council had apparently taken no action toward any reports it got about this matter, over a six-month period. X said they had spent a lot of their time chasing up the Council’s response and this caused them frustration.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 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

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. In X’s area people have attached flags to street lighting columns and street furniture. X said the Council did not respond to them about this and they made a Freedom of Information request to the Council about this. Following this request, X said the Council had taken no action in relation to multiple reports on this issue.
6. Our role is only to investigate complaints where the person complaining has suffered serious loss, harm or distress, directly because of the actions or inactions of the Council.
7. I recognise X may find the flags concerning, but it is not for the Ombudsman to reach a judgement about the significance of a flag to some people but not to others. This means any distress X may experience from seeing the flags is not a significant enough injustice to warrant the Ombudsman using time and public money to investigate.  
8. Nor will I investigate a complaint the Council did not properly follow its complaint procedures in X’s case. This is because it is not proportionate to investigate complaint handling faults, where we decide not to look at the substantive issue.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate X’s complaint because there is no significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman