The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Ms X’s reports of human waste which contaminated her property at a car boot sale after the Council had cleaned the site. This is because an investigation is unlikely to add to that already carried out by the Council or lead to a significantly different outcome.
The complaint
Ms X complains about the contamination of her property by human waste when she attended a car boot sale at a site previously cleaned by the Council. She says the Council’s response was not acceptable and its communication poor.
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: we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, 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 the complainant, including the Council’s response to her complaint.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We do not investigate every complaint we receive and while the impact of the events on Ms X is noted, there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation. The Council has apologised for its delay and has offered Ms X £50 for any distress caused by its initial response.
We are funded by the public purse and have an obligation to use the funds allocated to us in an effective, efficient and economic manner which means we will not investigate if we cannot usefully add to the investigation already carried out by a council or if the outcome is unlikely to be significantly different.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because an investigation is unlikely to add to that already carried out by the Council or lead to a significantly different outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman