Norfolk County Council (25 008 594)
Category : Transport and highways > Highway adoption
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 17 Nov 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to allow Ms X to pave a grass verge outside her home. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
- Ms X complained the Council has not agreed for her to pave part of a grassed verge outside her home to create pedestrian access to her home.
- Ms X is seeking a change of the Council’s decision.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms X asked the Council for permission to pave a part of a grassed verge immediately outside her property.
- The Council responded it would not agree to this as her home has access by a vehicular driveway. It also explained the work Ms X wanted would not serve the public but would need to be maintained by the public purse. This is because the grass verge is part of the highway.
- The Council has explained Ms X has the option to pay for work herself and create a pedestrian access, but she will need to apply for planning permission for such work.
- The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. We do not provide a second look at a decision the Council has made. In this case, the Council has made a decision it is entitled to make and explained its reasoning to Ms X.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman