The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council issuing her with a Community Protection Warning (CPW) letter, not showing her its officers’ CCTV footage from visits to her property, and not taking action against her neighbour’s CCTV cameras. The Council has withdrawn the CPW and the neighbour has moved to a new address.
Investigation would not achieve different worthwhile outcomes, there is not enough personal injustice to warrant us investigating, and we cannot get the outcomes Mrs X seeks from her complaint.
The complaint
Mrs X complains the Council: incorrectly gave her a Community Protection Warning (CPW) letter after two parties held at her property; failed to give her its officer’s video footage of the alleged noise incidents at her property; failed to deal with her neighbour’s CCTV cameras facing her property.
Mrs X says the matters have caused her and her family an unnecessary amount of stress and upset. She says the neighbour’s cameras intruded on her family’s privacy. Mrs X wants the Council to take action against the officers involved and the neighbour who put up the CCTV cameras.
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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained; or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement; or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome; or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information from Mrs X, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council issued the CPW letter after the second of two parties held at Mrs X’s home earlier in 2022. Its officers visited the property on both occasions.
In response to Mrs X’s complaint, the Council accepted neither officer visit witnessed the parties late in the evening, and there had only been two events with two months between them. The Council rescinded the CPW and apologised for the distress it caused.
If we investigated and found fault in a council issuing a CPW letter, an apology and the letter’s withdrawal would be the outcomes we would seek. There is no different outcome our investigation of this part of the complaint could now achieve so we will not pursue it.
I recognise the CPW letter caused upset and stress to Mrs X and her family. But the Council withdrawing the letter means there is not sufficient personal injustice, including ongoing injustice, from the matter which warrants us investigating.
Mrs X says the Council did not provide its officers’ camera footage of their visits. Any differences between Mrs X’s own video footage of the visits and the officers’ recordings are no longer relevant now the Council has removed the CPW related to those events. The Council’s decision to withdraw the CPW means there would be no different outcome to be achieved from officers now disclosing that footage or from us investigating it, so we will not pursue this issue.
The outcomes Mrs X seeks from her complaint are for the Council to discipline the officers involved and take action against her neighbour about the CCTV cameras. We cannot order councils to take action against staff members. Whether they train or discipline employees are personnel matters for councils to decide. We also cannot order councils to enforce against people for any claimed misuse of CCTV. It is for officers to reach their professional judgement on whether that kind of action is proportionate and appropriate in each case. Officers have decided not to take action against Mrs X’s neighbour because they have moved to another address, so there would be no benefit from them pursuing the matter now. We cannot achieve the outcomes Mrs X seeks from her complaint, which is another reason why we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because: investigation would not achieve any different outcome; and there is not enough personal injustice to warrant us investigating; and we cannot get the outcomes Mrs X seeks from her complaint.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman