The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint that the Council is employing too many staff to clean public toilets at a bus station. This is because Mr B has not suffered a significant injustice which would warrant an investigation.
The complaint
The complainant, who I will refer to as Mr B, complains that the Council is wasting public money by employing two attendants to clean the toilets at a bus station. Mr B says the Council has not provided an adequate response to his complaint about this. Mr B also says the Council has required him to put in a freedom of information request rather than simply provide the information he requested.
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 an investigation if we decide: any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or 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 Mr B.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We have limited resources and must focus our investigations on complaints of serious injustice, particularly issues of public interest. Mr B has not suffered a significant injustice because of the alleged failure by the Council to correctly staff the bus station toilets. This means an investigation is not justified.
Mr B also complains about the Council’s handling of his complaint about this matter. But, because we are not investigating the substantive matter, an investigation solely into the Council’s handling of Mr B’s complaint is not justified.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because he has not suffered a significant injustice which would justify an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman