Kent County Council (23 017 330)
Category : Transport and highways > Highway repair and maintenance
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 20 Mar 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with issues arising from work carried out to the highway outside the complainant home. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and an investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
The complaint
- Mr X complains that the Council failed to properly deal with his concerns about works to the road outside his home that were carried out by a utilities company. Mr X says there was a storage compound outside his home for 14 weeks and conditions applied to the site were not met, restricting access too and from his driveway.
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
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- A utilities company carried out works to the road outside Mr X’s home. As part of the approved works a compound was set up opposite Mr X’s driveway.
- I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. The Council carried out a number of routine inspections of the site and found it to be largely complaint, and any issues found were raised with the utility company. In response to Mr X’s complaint a further inspection was carried out and the site was found to be safe. Further investigation would also not lead to a different outcome. This is because the compound has now moved and the Council said it regularly meets with utilities companies to discuss issues that have arisen during works.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman