The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Mr X’s reports of noise nuisance coming from a commercial business operating in his locale. This is because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council sufficient to warrant an investigation and the Council currently has an ongoing investigation into the matter.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council failed to act on his request for an Anti-Social Behaviour Case Review following his dissatisfaction with its response to the reports of noise nuisance he had made in relation to a commercial business which operates in his locale.
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 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 continue an investigation if we decide: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council, including its response to the complaint.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X complained to the Council that he had not received a response to the three reports of anti-social behaviour he had made concerning noise nuisance coming from a business operating about half a mile from his home.
The Council explained that due to demands on its service, unless specifically requested, it did not always report back but that officers had considered his concerns and while ASB officers had attended the site they had not witnessed noise nuisance, particularly given that the noise was not outside that associated with a business of the type involved.
However, it told Mr X that following his last report, it had passed the matter to its Environmental Health Team to investigate whether there was a statutory noise nuisance coming from the business. It said because of the Team’s ongoing live investigation, it would not carry out an ASB Case Review as Mr X had requested and it set out the next steps in the Team’s investigation. This included the receipt of noise logs from Mr X and the installation of noise recording equipment in his home.
The Council has confirmed the noise monitoring sheets have been received from Mr X and that the monitoring equipment will be installed in April as part of its ongoing investigation.
Mr X has complained about information he was given initially by an officer which he says points to a need for staff training. The Council said it had found no evidence to suggest the officer complained about was unaware of the relevant legislation and that it carries out regular reviews, including the provision of training, with all staff members.
The Council acted in response to Mr X’s reports of noise nuisance. ASB officers visited the site and assessed the noise and, following Mr X’s report made at the end of September, a referral was made to the Environmental Health Team. Its investigation is still ongoing, and its findings will be reported back to Mr X. Given this action, and that there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council to date to warrant an investigation, we will not pursue the complaint further.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council sufficient to warrant an investigation and the Council currently has an ongoing investigation into the matter.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman