The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a noise/antisocial behaviour issue. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council causing Mr X significant injustice. Mr X confirms the issue has stopped and we could not achieve anything more for him at this time.
The complaint
The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council failed to deal with his concerns about noise and antisocial behaviour by his neighbour.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council investigated Mr X’s concerns promptly and Mr X confirms the issue is now resolved. While he is concerned it may start again at some point in the future this does not warrant further investigation of the Council’s actions to date. In the event the noise and antisocial behaviour do start again Mr X should report this to the Council. If he is not happy with the Council’s handling of these reports he may then raise a formal complaint and refer the matter to us to consider as a new matter. But for now we could not say the Council’s actions amounted to fault or that they caused Mr X significant injustice. We also could not achieve any worthwhile outcome by investigating at this stage.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman