The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of refuse collection. This is because any injustice is not significant enough to warrant investigation.
The complaint
Mr X complains: Refuse workers left bins tipped over on collection day; About the conduct of a refuse worker; and The Council handled his complaint poorly.
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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
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 told Mr X it was likely the bins tipped over because of weather conditions. It also reminded refuse workers to leave bins in the correct position when leaving a site. There is not enough evidence of fault to consider this matter further. And any injustice experienced by Mr X is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
Mr X complained a refuse worker verbally abused him. The Council explained to Mr X it could not uphold the complaint as it was one person's word against the other as to what happened. Further investigation by us would not lead to a different outcome.
It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaints procedures if we are not investigating the substantive issues.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because any injustice isn’t significant enough to justify our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman