The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to send Mr X an informal warning letter about his dogs straying from his property. That is because we do not consider the Council’s actions have caused Mr X a significant injustice.
The complaint
Mr X complained about the Council’s decision to send him a warning letter about his dogs escaping from his back garden. He said the Council failed to investigate the allegations properly before sending the letter. He said the Council’s actions had caused him to become depressed and he wants an apology.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide: any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
In the Council’s response to Mr X’s complaint, it explained the warning letter was an informal letter. It said it sent this after it received a complaint about dogs straying from his property. It said the Council spoke to the Police before sending the letter.
The Council said the purpose of the warning letter was to make him aware there may be a problem with his dogs getting out of his garden. And, if that problem continued, the Council may take further action. The Council confirmed it had not received any further complaints, therefore would not be taking any further action.
Although Mr X is unhappy with the Council’s decision to send him a warning letter will not investigate this complaint further. The warning letter was only advisory, it has not resulted in any enforcement action. I appreciate that may have caused Mr X some upset, but we would not consider that significant enough injustice to investigate further. We can’t say the Council’s actions caused Mr X to become depressed.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we do not consider Mr X has been caused a significant injustice by the Council’s actions.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman