The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s maintenance of land it owns near his home. An investigation would not lead to a different outcome or achieve what Mr X wants.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council is failing to maintain land it owns near his home. He says this has caused recent incidents of flooding close to his property and an increased risk of future floods. He wants the Council to carry out further maintenance works and commit to a regular maintenance schedule.
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: further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)) We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
In its final response to Mr X, the Council said it had removed some vegetation from the pond in January 2024. It confirmed the pond was cleared fortnightly of rubbish and debris. It had considered whether to complete further de-silting work but decided it did not have the resource to do this. It said it had referred the matter to its flooding team for further investigation. It advised him when it would prune the nearby trees and the reasons for the estimated timescale.
We will not investigate this complaint as it is unlikely an investigation would lead to a different outcome. The Council has appropriately considered and responded to Mr X’s concerns and advised him what action it has taken. It has also agreed to investigate the flood risk further. Although I accept Mr X is dissatisfied with the Council’s actions and decisions, it is for the Council to decide how to allocate its resources. As long as it considers requests appropriately, we cannot question the decision reached. We could not require the Council to carry out further works or to increase its maintenance schedule and so we cannot achieve what Mr X wants.
Mr X also complains about poor complaint handling. The Council has partly upheld his complaint about this and apologised. Although I accept Mr X is not satisfied with this response, we will not investigate this. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint handling, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because an investigation would not lead to a different outcome or achieve what he wants.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman