The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to prune or remove a tree. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision-making process to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council’s tree is overhanging his garden. He asked the Council to prune or remove the tree because he cannot do so, but it refused.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. 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 Mr X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council says it will not prune or remove the tree because it goes against its policy, which says: The Council will not normally conduct any tree works relating to garden overhang.
If the overhang is to a garden site inspection is not required.
The Council considered the information Mr X provided but concluded there were no grounds to take action. It said Mr X can carry out tree work in his own garden and if he is not able to do so a tree surgeon can trim any overhanging branches on his behalf.
We are not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. The Council’s process in deciding not to prune the tree involved assessing the situation and applying its policy. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council made its decision to warrant an investigation. We realise Mr X disagrees with the decision, but this itself is not evidence of fault.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman