The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s actions in sending an Advice and Guidance letter to Ms X about excessive feeding of wild birds. This is because there is no evidence to suggest there has been fault by the Council.
The complaint
The complainant, who I refer to as Ms X, says the Council was wrong to send her an Advisory and Guidance Letter about the excessive feeding of wild birds in her garden without evidence to support the allegation it had received.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council, including its responses to her complaint.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Following a report it received from a local resident about excessive bird feeding at Ms X’s property causing a nuisance, the Council sent Ms X an Advisory and Guidance Letter to explain that a complaint had been made and to offer general advice.
Ms X complained to the Council about its actions in sending her the letter without evidence to support the allegation. The Council responded to her complaint to explain the letter it had sent her did not accuse her of excessive feeding but to advise her it had received a complaint. It did not uphold her complaint.
While I understand Ms X was distressed to receive the letter, I have seen no evidence to suggest there has been fault by the Council. It followed its normal procedures in alerting her to the complaint it had received but it came to no judgement on the validity of the allegation.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is no evidence to suggest fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman