The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to evict the complainant from his allotment. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the Council’s decision to evict him from his allotment.
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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council received complaints about posts Mr X had made on social media about another allotment holder. It investigated and decided to end Mr X’s tenancy giving 28 days notice.
Between receiving the complaints against him and serving the notice, Mr X paid the annual fee for his plot.
Following his complaint, the Council confirmed it investigated the complaints against Mr X and was satisfied he had breached rule for allotment holders which states: “Section10.1- Not to physically assault, use threatening behaviour or verbal abuse towards any other person(s) or undertake any other anti-social activities whatsoever in connection with or on the Allotment Site.”
It says it served the 28-day eviction notice under section 10.2 of the rules. This confirms a breach of the above rule will result in in immediate termination of the licence. It will also involve the Police where necessary.
The Council says the delay in investigating the complaints against Mr X was because of capacity issues and the time spent investigating. As a gesture of goodwill, it has offered to refund the rental fee, less the amount covering the time when Mr X had access to his plot.
I will not investigate this part of Mr X’s complaint as there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation. Having considered the complaints against him, it decided to evict him from his allotment for breaching the rules. This is a decision the Council is entitled to make.
Mr X also complains the Council failed to follow its complaint process. I accept the Council took longer to respond to Mr X’s complaints than stated in its complaint procedure. We expect councils to follow their published procedures for dealing with complaints. However, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are not dealing with the substantive issue.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there we are unlikely to find fault in the way the Council decided to evict Mr X from his allotment.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman