The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to remove offensive graffiti from a council owned building within a timely manner. This is because the Council has conceded fault and an investigation would be unlikely to lead to a worthwhile outcome.
The complaint
Mr X complained the Council failed to keep to its guidelines to remove offensive graffiti within 24 hours.
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 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 Mr X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X complained to the Council after he reported offensive graffiti, but the graffiti was not removed for approximately 2 weeks.
The Council conceded it failed to keep to its aim to remove offensive graffiti within 24 hours and apologised for the distress caused to Mr X as a result.
Mr X remains unhappy with the Council’s actions and wants the Ombudsman to find it at fault. The evidence shows the Council has acknowledged it did not keep to its timescales on this occasion and has provided a genuine apology. There is no evidence that this is a holistic issue nor that the Council acted with bias in delaying removing the graffiti. Whilst Mr X’s position is understandable, it is unlikely that an investigation would provide a worthwhile outcome for him.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because an investigation would be unlikely to lead to a worthwhile outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman