Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to a report of a broken street lighting column. There is no significant injustice.

The complaint

1. X complains the Council has wrongly refused to repair a faulty streetlight. X says the Council’s contractors had previously accepted responsibility for a repair, but the Council now says it has no responsibility whatsoever.
2. X says they are concerned the area immediately surrounding the streetlight is left in darkness and they have been inconvenienced because of the Council’s poor communication in its responses.

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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))
4. We will not usually investigate complaint handling and communication faults if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. X complained the Council declined to take responsibility for a repair to a faulty streetlight after previously accepting some responsibility. X said the Council’s communication about this matter was poor and he wants the Council to notify him of who the relevant landowner is, who does have responsibility.
8. I will not investigate this complaint. Our role is to investigate complaints where a complainant has suffered serious loss, harm or distress caused directly by an organisation’s actions. Noting X will likely have suffered some inconvenience by pursuing correspondence and in making their complaint, I am not satisfied it meets the threshold that would justify an investigation by the Ombudsman.

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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