Summary: Mr X complains about the way the Council responded to and dealt with his reports of flooding at his property caused by a blocked drain near to his home. We found no evidence of fault in the way the Council responded to Mr X’s concerns about the blocked drain. We found fault as the Council delayed in responding to Mr X’s request for the Council to install a road gulley near to his property. The Council has already apologised to Mr X for the delay which is a suitable remedy in this case. So, we have completed our investigation.

The complaint

1. I have called the complainant Mr X. He complains there were failings in the way the Council responded to and dealt with his reports of flooding at his property during heavy rainfall due to a blocked road drain near to his home. Mr X says he was reporting urgent flooding at this property but was told there would be a five or seven day wait for a response to his concerns. Mr X says the Council’s delays in dealing with the issue resulted in flooding to his driveway, garden and outbuilding and caused him inconvenience and time and trouble in pursuing the matter.
2. Mr X wants the Council to clear out the drain, install a gulley near his property and repair damage to the road caused by the flood water.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

4. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I have read the papers submitted by Mr X and spoken to him about the complaint. I have considered the Councils comments on the complaint and the supporting documents it provided.
6. Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

The Council’s policy for dealing with drainage repairs

7. The Council’s website allows residents to report problems on road or pavements. It is used for non-urgent issues such as streetlight faults, potholes, drainage, traffic signal faults and overgrown vegetation.
8. Once the Council receives an enquiry it will take appropriate action. It aims to fix
• dangerous faults within 2 hours.
• safety hazards within 7 days.
• routine faults such as streetlights, potholes, and soft landscape issue within 28 days, unless there is a serious problem which could take longer.
• traffic signals within 4 hours if they are urgent or within 7 days if less urgent.
• drainage maintenance within 28-90 days.
• drainage investigations of defects or repeated flooding to be inspected within 28 days for strategic roads and 90 days for minor roads. A site flood risk assessment is carried out to determine further work required.
• all other faults will be scheduled into its planned maintenance.
9. The web site shows it is possible to track an existing enquiry to see what is happening about the fault reported.

What happened in this case

10. Mr X logged an enquiry on the Council’s website for a blocked drain outside his property in heavy rain in June 2021. Mr X said the blocked drain resulted in rainwater onto his driveway, patio and garden causing a build-up of silt and water. Mr X asked the Council to unblock the drain. Mr X’s neighbours have a gulley outside their property to drain water away. Mr X asked if the Council would install a gulley outside his property as well. Mr X made a complaint to the Council through its complaint procedure about the blocked drain.
11. The Council’s highways service inspected the site a few days later. An officer raised a job to dig out and cleanse two gullies near to Mr X’s property. The officer noted a nearby ditch was overgrown and needed clearing out, but this required the Council to activate a road closure order to carry out the works.
12. A Council work crew attended the site but reported they could not access the location due to tree works taking place in the road. The crew told Mr X they would raise a 7-day priority job for the works and made sure he had the out of hours emergency number to call if necessary. The crew attended the site again a week later and successfully cleansed and jetted four gullies. The crew reported no faults.
13. The Council responded to Mr X’s complaint at stage 1 of the complaint procedure in July 2021. It reported cleansing the gullies, but the ditch needed further attention. The Council told Mr X a local drainage engineer would visit the site to decide the scope of work. The engineer would then arrange the work to clean the ditch and removed the spoil from the site.
14. Mr X was unhappy with the Council’s response. He complained it had been a month since he raised the issue. Mr X said a work crew came to unblock the drain but said they needed to return another day. When they did the crew forgot to clean the drain, he complained about, so he had to raise the issue again. Mr X said his property had been flooded twice and he lost stock from his business stored in an outbuilding. Mr X said he had received no response to his request to install a gulley outside his property. This was due to the road being damaged by flood water and causing flooding to his property.
15. The Council responded to Mr X’s complaint at stage 2 of the complaint procedure in August 2021. It apologised to Mr X his requests about a road gulley and drainage remained unresolved. But this was due to unseasonably adverse rainfall causing a backlog of drainage team enquiries. The team was addressing these urgently. The Council asked the drainage engineer to update Mr X on gullies and drainage outside his property.
16. In September 2021 the highways team told Mr X it planned to close the road on 28 September 2021 to clean the ditch and remove debris. Mr X would be able to speak to the drainage engineer on site to discuss a drainage gulley outside his property.
17. The drainage engineer went to the site on 28 September 2021 and discussed a possible new gulley with Mr X. The engineer agreed to review the request and advised Mr X the crew could not clean the ditch that day because of a plant breakdown. The crew carried out the work the next day and cleared the ditch.
18. Mr X contacted the Council in October 2021 to report the drain by his property was still blocked as the crew only cleared the ditch. The highways service raised another job to clean the gullies. A crew carried out more cleansing to the drain a week later. The crew reported the system clear and free flowing.
19. A highways officer contacted Mr X and hoped the completed cleansing work resolved the issues. The officer said the Council would not install a gulley, new kerbing, or any extra drainage by his property. But would monitor the site to see if the clearance was successful before considering any further works. Mr X acknowledged the response and asked the Council to fill in the potholes on the road. The Council raised an order to fill in the potholes.
20. Mr X confirms the drainage issues at his property have been resolved.

The Council’s response to the complaint

21. The Council says under its drainage policy it aims to fix drainage maintenance issues raised with it within 28 to 90 days. The Council says the information Mr X provided in his enquiry did not indicate the flooding was an urgent risk and required immediate attention. The Council says it took 19 days between Mr X reporting the issue in June 2021 and the work crew cleaning four gullies for the first time.
22. The Council accepts a delay before it cleared the ditches at the site on 29 September 2021. But this was due to needing a road closure order to be in place to enable the crew to safely carry out the works.
23. The Council says Mr X reported further issues with the drain directly with a highways officer. The officer went on unexpected leave and as Mr X did not log the issue via the website it was not picked up by another officer. However, Mr X met with an engineer and highways officer on site in November 2021 to discuss his concerns. The officers told Mr X the system was free flowing, and ditches cleared with no further works needed. The officer told Mr X the Council could not increase the existing kerb height of the road but would raise a job to fill in two potholes on the road. The Council says Mr X has not reported any further issues.

My assessment

24. The documents show Mr X reported a blocked drain and the Council considered the enquiry. Due to the information provided by Mr X the Council dealt with the enquiry as a drainage maintenance issue with a timescale of 28 to 90 days. The evidence shows the Council responded quickly and carried out a site inspection to determine the scope of works. It is unfortunate the work crew could not clean the gullies on the first attempt due to tree works taking place in the road. But the crew attended soon after and cleaned the gullies within 19 days. So, this was well within the Council’s policy timescales for drainage maintenance issues.
25. Mr X says one drain was missed so had to be redone. The Council documents do not reflect Mr X’s comments and recorded the four gullies as being cleaned at the same time. However, the gullies were cleaned within the Council’s drainage maintenance targets. So, I do not consider any further investigation on this point will lead to a different outcome for Mr X.
26. The Council explained it needed to arrange a road closure order to clean out the ditch. This was because of the width of the road and need to keep the work crew safe. The documents provided show the Council did not tell Mr X the ditch needed further attention until it responded to his complaint in July 2021. I appreciate the lack of information may have caused frustration to Mr X. But until the Council updated Mr X on its proposed actions it was open to Mr X to track his enquiry to see what was happening about the issues he reported.
27. The Council accepts it delayed dealing with Mr X’s request for it to install a road gulley by his property. The delay is fault by the Council. This caused an injustice to Mr X in terms of uncertainty as to whether his request would be agreed to and his time and trouble in pursuing the matter further. Mr X first raised his enquiry in June 2021. The documents show the Council did not fully respond until September 2021 when an engineer met Mr X on site.
28. The Council apologised to Mr X for the delay while dealing with the enquiry. Mr X has also been able to discuss his concerns on site with an engineer. Because of this I consider the apology and discussions with the engineer suitable action for the Council to take. And the actions remedy any injustice caused to Mr X.
29. Mr X has raised concerns about flooding to his property and loss of goods stored for his business. We would expect Mr X to make an insurance claim to recover any damage to or his property and so would not consider this part of Mr X’s complaint. Mr X has confirmed the drainage issues have now been resolved. Because of this and the Council’s apology I do not consider any further investigation now will lead to a different outcome for Mr X. In addition, the Council has cleared the drain and repaired the road which are the actions Mr X was seeking.

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Final decision

30. I am completing my enquiries. There is no evidence of fault by the Council in the way it dealt with and responded to Mr X’s reports of flooding at his property caused by a blocked drain. The Council was at fault as it delayed responding to Mr X’s request for the Council to install a road gulley near to his property. The Council has already apologised to Mr X for the delay which is a suitable remedy in this case.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman