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Worcestershire County Council (07B05698)

Highway management                      Maladministration causing injustice

08 September 2008

Worcestershire County Council’s failure to ensure that a road was adopted within the statutory three years of it being opened to traffic meant that a woman whose bungalow was overlooked by the road lost her right to claim compensation. The Ombudsman concludes “the failure to secure the adoption of the road within a reasonable timescale was the result of inattention and lack of appropriate urgency on the Council’s part,” and recommends the Council either pays £10,000 compensation or else proceeds as if a claim had been made within required timescale and determines it accordingly.

‘Mrs Parker’ (not her real name for legal reasons) lives in a small bungalow. There was a disused railway line at the back of her property with an embankment upwards from the end of her short garden. The railway line was to form part of the local relief road. The road was built by a developer during the course of 2003. The road is now some eight feet higher than her garden. This means that people travelling along the road or walking along the pavement can see into her garden and house. The road was not adopted within three years of it being opened to public traffic which meant that Mrs Parker, and other residents, were not able to make a claim under the Land Compensation Act 1971 for compensation.

The Ombudsman considers that the Council failed to ensure that the road was built to an acceptable standard and to ensure that it was adopted within a reasonable timescale. The consequence for Mrs Parker is that she has lost the right to make a claim for compensation.

The Ombudsman finds maladministration causing injustice and recommends the Council to either:

  • proceed as if Mrs Parker had made a claim for compensation, decide whether she would be entitled to it and, if so, decide the amount and pay her the equivalent sum (in the event of a dispute the matter to be referred to the Ombudsman): or
  • pay Mrs Parker £10,000.

Date Updated: 21/10/08