Mr A complained that Wrexham County Borough Council had not removed a shrub that had self-seeded into the side of his property. He said that despite reporting the issue some years previously, the shrub had still not been removed.
The Ombudsman decided that it had taken the Council along time to respond to the issue which the complainant had first reported in2021. As a consequence of the time that had passed the shrub had grown, birds were nesting in it, and when the Council undertook a visit to the property in June 2024 the shrub could not be removed because nesting birds were present. The Ombudsman decided to settle the complaint without an investigation.
The Ombudsman sought and gained the Council’s agreement that, within 20 working days, it would respond to Mr A’s complaint at Stage 2 of the Council’s complaint procedure, it would consider apologising for the time taken to remove the shrub and it would give Mr A a date in September when it would return to remove the shrub once the nesting birds had fledged.