The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council handled a complaint about the placement of a telecommunications cabinet. This is because we have decided any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
The complaint
Ms X complains the Council failed to investigate the placement of a telecommunications cabinet on the highway outside her property. She says this has caused her injustice because the cabinet makes it difficult for her, and her disabled relative who visits, to access and exit her car. Ms X complains the Council has not given due regard to the Equality Act, planning legislation and highways legislation. Ms X also says the Council did not respond to her complaint about the matter in a timely manner.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended) People may complain to us about injustice caused by: ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’ by a public organisation we could investigate; or the actions of an organisation in connection with privately arranged adult social care.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(1) or section 34C(1)(a)).
We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), or section 34B(8)).
We will not normally investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), or section 34B(8)).
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The law means we can choose only to investigate a complaint where the person has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by the body complained about. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
I recognise the circumstances of Ms X’s complaint have affected her, but this is not significant enough to warrant us investigating.
We cannot decide if an organisation has breached the Equality Act as this can only be done by the courts. It is reasonable for Ms X to pursue this matter through the courts if she wishes to do so.
We will not investigate the way the Council handled the complaint and correspondence here because we are satisfied it did not cause enough separate injustice to warrant it.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman