The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to take enforcement action against a flytipper. This is because there is no sign of fault by the Council.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains about the Council’s decision not to take enforcement action against a flytipper.
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 effect 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 the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended) We do not start an investigation if we decide: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X complains about the Council’s decision not to take enforcement action against a flytipper. Mr X says the flytipper is a known person and the Council’s decision not to take enforcement action but to remove the flytipped waste encourages further antisocial behaviour.
The Council told Mr X it would be difficult to prove who was responsible for the flytipping in this case and the likelihood of a successful enforcement case was very low. Taking this into account, along with its finite resources, it decided not to take enforcement action and to remove the material itself. It said if there was a future pattern of flytipping or any conclusive evidence of the perpetrator it would consider an investigation by its enforcement team.
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault by the Council here. It acted on Mr X’s concerns and took action to resolve the matter. It has explained why it decided not to take enforcement action on this occasion. This is a decision the Council is entitled to make. It is a matter for the Council to decide where best to focus its limited resources and it has clearly explained its decision and reasons to Mr X. There is nothing further we could add to the response the Council has already provided to Mr X on this matter.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no sign of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman