The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the failure to provide a bin collection service during strike action. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate.
T he problem affect ed all or most of the people in Council’s area , and we will not look at its complaint handling in isolation.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, says the Council failed to provide a bin collection service during Christmas 2021 and into the New Year because of strike action. Mr X also says the Council failed to respond to his associated complaint.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended) And it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X, and our Assessment Code.
My assessment
The industrial strike action which caused the issues Mr X complained about is something which affected all or most of the people living in the Council’s area. The restriction detailed in paragraph 3 above therefore applies to this part of the complaint, and the Ombudsman cannot investigate it.
And with reference to paragraph 4, in cases where we are not investigating the substantive matter being complained about, we do not normally separately investigate any associated concerns about the Council’s complaint handling process.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the matter he is complaining about affected all or most of the people in Council’s area, and we will not look at its complaint handling in isolation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman