Miss L complained that Denbighshire County Council had not responded to her concerns about an unlicensed and unpermitted use of a residential property adjacent to her property. She also complained about noise nuisance and the Councils failure to act on her concerns.
The Ombudsman concluded that although Miss L raised several complaints with the Council, it had not escalated these under its statutory complaint’s procedure. As a result, the Council failed to respond to the concerns raised or within its complaints procedure timeframe. She said this caused frustration to Miss L.
As an alternative to an investigation, the Ombudsman sought and gained the Councils agreement to provide Miss L with an apology for the delay in responding to her concerns, to escalate her concerns under its stage 2 procedure, and issue a complaint response within 30 working days.