Decision Report 201605584

Summary

Mrs C made a complaint about the council who she stated were not regularly cleaning the street and emptying bins outside her business premises. She had contacted the council on several occasions about this matter but remained unhappy with the response as often nobody would come out to clean or there would be a delay in this being actioned.

The council arranged for additional staff to attend the area and clean but they were unable to access with the road sweeper due to parked cars. They re-arranged to attend and cleaned the immediate area in front of Mrs C's business. She was unhappy about this as there was broken glass on the pavement nearby and rubbish was clogging up the drains. She reported this to the council who escalated her complaint. In their final response they offered an apology for any inconvenience and arranged for a further clean of the street.

Mrs C remained unhappy and asked SPSO to investigate her complaint. We obtained information from the council including case notes and evidence of their local procedures. There was no contrary evidence provided by the council to indicate that they had been meeting their obligations. As Mrs C's business was in a shopping street, local procedure meant it should be cleaned daily. The council had also indicated that they had an increased budget for the new financial year and therefore would be able to improve their street cleaning operations. In light of the absence of any evidence that the street area had been cleaned daily as required, we upheld Mrs C's complaint.