Manchester City Council (24 014 098)
Category : Transport and highways > Highway repair and maintenance
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 09 Jan 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a damaged lighting column on a pavement. This is because the matter has not caused Mr X any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
- The complainant, Mr X, complains about a damaged lighting column on a pavement. Mr X says he regularly passes the column and it is visually unpleasant. He says it is dangerous and should be removed.
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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
- We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (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
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because the matter complained about has not caused Mr X any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to warrant an investigation by this office. Mr X says he passes the damaged column regularly and it is visually unpleasant. This does not amount to a serious personal injustice which merits an investigation by us. We do not investigate every complaint we receive. We must focus our limited public resources on investigating those complaints where a person has suffered a significant personal injustice as a result of alleged fault by a body in our jurisdiction. This is not the case here and so we will not investigate.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the matter has not caused him any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to merit an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman