Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council has not swept the road outside his house or cleared the drains. This is because we would be unlikely to find fault and any injustice in not significant enough to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has not swept the road outside his house or cleared the drains. He says vegetation is growing down the drains outside his property and the Council should clear this.

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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’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we would find fault or the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information provided by Mr X in his complaint and the Council’s responses to him.
5. I sent a copy of my draft decision to Mr X. I considered his comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Background

6. Outside Mr X’s house is a verge which he says is owned by the Council. The verge is planted with shrubs and other vegetation, which Mr X says were planted by the developer of the house.
7. The verge is next to an access road which the Council accepts is a highway it is responsible for as the local highways authority.
8. Mr X says the vegetation on the verge is overgrowing and is starting to grow into the drain outside his house. Mr X used to trim the vegetation on the verge, but is no longer able to do this.
9. Mr X says he asked the Council to clear the vegetation from the drains and to sweep the highway, most recently in August 2019 when he complained. Alternatively, he wants the Council to replace the vegetation with grass or gravel as it suggested in the past.
10. In response to his 2019 complaint, the Council says it inspected the verge and decided no work was required. The Council told Mr X that it was only responsible for verge so that the highway is safe and other work, such as street sweeping, is the responsibility of the district council.
11. Mr X complained to the Council again in August 2020. The Council told Mr X that his 2019 complaint had been closed and that if there were further safety issues with the verge he should report them using its online form.

Analysis

12. A local highway authority is responsible for ensuring highways are safe. This includes drains which take surface water from the highway. It is not otherwise responsible for land next to the highway. Although the Council has adopted the highways, this does not mean that it owns the land on which the verge sits.
13. The law says the local district council is responsible for keeping public highways clear of litter, which can include street sweeping. (Environmental Protection Act 1990, sections 86(9) and 89)
14. When Mr X reported the state of the verge in 2019, the Council treated this as a report about the condition of the highway. It inspected the highway and decided no work was required. I appreciate Mr X may disagree with the decision. However, the Ombudsman does not act as an appeal body and we cannot intervene simply because the Council makes a decision that someone disagrees with. The Council inspected the verge in line with its policy, so it is unlikely we would find fault with the Council’s decision not to take any work.
15. When Mr X complained to the Council again in 2020, the Council decided his complaint was about the same issue which it responded to in 2019. The Council’s policy says people must make complaints about matters within 12 months. The Council also advised Mr X to make a new safety report about the verge if he thought it was unsafe. Since the Council applied its complaints policy correctly, it is unlikely we would find fault about the Council’s refusal to consider Mr X’s complaint further.
16. While Mr X says the vegetation is starting to grow down the drains, he has not suggested this has yet affected the safety of the highway. Since there is no evidence the vegetation on the verge has caused any significant problems for Mr X personally, there is not enough injustice to Mr X to justify an investigation.
17. The Council is not responsible for keeping the street clean, including street sweeping, so we would be unlikely to find fault that the Council has not swept Mr X’s road.

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Final decision

18. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because we would be unlikely to find fault and any injustice in not significant enough to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman