Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about problems relating to road closures. It is unlikely he would find evidence of fault causing the complainant injustice that would justify his involvement.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mr B, has complained about information the Council provided about roadworks it was carrying out. He also complained about the way the Council dealt with his concerns.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’.
3. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if, for example, we believe any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
4. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are not investigating the substantive issue.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I have considered what Mr B said in his complaint and discussed it with him. I have also seen background information provided by the Council.

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What I found

6. Mr B complained to the Council about inaccurate information relating to roadworks. He says the Council closed a road near his home to traffic on a day in early July 2019 when it had not advertised this. It also advertised a closure which did not take place.
7. Mr B complained to the Council on the day in question. The Council did not reply for a month and Mr B was still unhappy with the Council’s responses at the end of August.
8. The Council has accepted the information about the road closure was wrong and apologised to Mr B.
9. The Council should have provided a response to Mr B at Stage 2 of its complaints procedure from someone independent of its Highways department. It has agreed to do so now.

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Final decision

10. I have decided we will not investigate this complaint. While I have no doubt the road closures caused Mr B some inconvenience, I so not consider this caused him injustice that would justify the use of public funds to investigate. Given this, and its agreement to provide a further response to Mr B, I do not consider we should investigate how the Council dealt with his complaint as a separate issue.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman