Ashfield District Council (21 007 006)
Category : Environment and regulation > Antisocial behaviour
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 12 Oct 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about poor communication and advice from the Council. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. There is insufficient personal injustice to the complainant which warrants our involvement.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about poor communication, bad advice, and a lack of interest in his concerns about anti-social behaviour and customer service.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement
- we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the Mr X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we do not consider that he has suffered a significant personal injustice which justifies the expense of an investigation by the Ombudsman. Nor could we add to the investigation carried out by the Council and it is unlikely that further investigation would lead to a different outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman