The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about hedge cutting. This is because there is not significant enough injustice to justify our investigation.
The complaint
Mrs Y complains the Council has cut her hedge back beyond her boundary line without permission.
Mrs Y says the hedge which was planted for privacy has now been damaged significantly and needs to be replaced. She feels frustrated and inconvenienced.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information Mrs Y and the Council provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council wrote to Mrs Y and other residents on her road to ask residents to trim hedges along the street to allow for footpath maintenance work in February 2022. Mrs Y says she paid a gardener £100 to trim the hedge back to the boundary of her property. In readiness for the works. However, Mrs Y says the Council then came to her property in April and cut the hedge back further, past the boundary and damaging the hedge itself. Mrs Y says the hedge now needs to be replaced and there are holes which reduce her privacy.
Mrs Y complained to the Council in April. It responded in May denying any fault, explaining that the hedge had been cut to allow for the works and that it had written to Mrs Y as a resident prior to the works asking for this to be completed. Mrs Y then approached us at the end of May.
Analysis Mrs Y has told us that she cannot afford to replace the hedge to protect her privacy. 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. While this may have caused Mrs Y some frustration, this is not a significant enough injustice to warrant our investigation so we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs Y’s complaint because there is not significant enough injustice to warrant our investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman