The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint about the Council issuing him with a Community Protection Warning. This is because Mr B has not suffered a serious or significant injustice. Also, if the Council issues a Community Protection Notice, Mr B may put in an appeal to the magistrates court.
The complaint
Mr B complains the Council wrongly issued him with a Community Protection Warning after receiving just one complaint about him allegedly causing a nuisance. Mr B considers the Council has treated him unfairly and has wrongly taken the side of his neighbour. Mr B says his behaviour is not causing a nuisance to others and he would like the Council to remove the warning notice unless complaints are made by other neighbours.
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 an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)) The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr B.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We could start an investigation into the Council’s handling of this matter including the information it has received about Mr B’s behaviour and its judgement that Mr B is causing a nuisance.
But, I find an investigation is not justified. This is for two reasons.
First, the Council has only issued Mr B with a warning and has said at the moment it does not intend to pursue the matter further. So, although the warning has caused Mr B some concern, I find he has not suffered a serious or significant injustice which would justify an investigation by the Ombudsman.
Second, if the Council pursues this matter further by issuing a Community Protection Notice, Mr B will have a right of appeal to the magistrates court. We would generally expect a person to use this right of appeal if they are complaining about a Community Protection Notice. The court is in the best position to assess whether Mr B’s conduct is anti-social behaviour as set out in law.
Final decision
For the above reasons, we will not investigate this complaint.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman