Derbyshire County Council (24 015 045)

Category : Transport and highways > Highway repair and maintenance

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 26 Nov 2024

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to a complaint about a footpath. This is because there is no indication of fault in the Council’s response.

The complaint

  1. In summary, Mr X complains about the condition of a footpath. Mr X says he is worried about falling and considers there are works outstanding from 2022. Mr X would like the footpath to be resurfaced and he would like to be compensated for the stress caused.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
  2. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
  3. 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

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

  1. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
  2. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

  1. The Council has responded to Mr X to say a highways officer assessed the path in August 2024 and did not find any defects needing repairs. It also advised that another inspection would take place after rainy weather and the Council will update Mr X with the outcome.
  2. We will not investigate. Firstly, we would not investigate what happened in 2022 as this part of the complaint has been made late. It was reasonable to expect Mr X to have complained within 12 months of becoming aware of his concerns from two years ago.
  3. Secondly, we are unlikely to find fault in the process the Council followed recently given it has inspected the footpath and responded to Mr X’s concerns.
  4. While I appreciate Mr X’s views on a defective path may differ from the Council’s, this is not necessarily evidence of the Council acting with fault. The Ombudsman cannot tell the Council if the footpath is defective, we can only look at the process the Council followed to make its decision.

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Final decision

  1. We will not investigate as we are unlikely to find fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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