The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Mr X’s street maintenance request and complaint about the matter. There is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our involvement.
The complaint
Mr X complained about the Council’s handling of his request for street maintenance and his complaint about the matter.
Mr X said the matters caused frustration.
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 no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
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 late June 2025, Mr X told the Council about a street maintenance issue. Mr X complained about delays in the Council acting on the matter, how it communicated with him and its handling of his complaint.
The Council completed the work Mr X requested in August 2025, 10 days after it told Mr X it would.
In its complaint response, the Council upheld the complaint and said it did not meet its deadline due to other urgent matters leading to reallocation of its staff. It apologised it did not tell Mr X about the delay.
The Council also explained how it did not respond to some of Mr X’s communications because of human error and new technology.
The Council said it shared feedback with the service to help it improve its communications with residents.
There is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our involvement.
Mr X seeks accountability from individual Council officers involved in the matters. This is not something the Ombudsman can achieve.
The Council upheld the complaint, apologised and said it would use learning from Mr X’s complaint to improve its service. The Ombudsman would be unlikely to achieve anything further and therefore we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman