Summary: We will not exercise discretion investigate this complaint about flooding on a private road. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Mrs X could not have complained to us sooner.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained about the Council’s failure to prevent flooding of the road on which she lives over the past decades. She says her vehicle was lost in 2007 due to high floodwater and her property has been inaccessible when water has frozen in cold weather. She wants the Council to put a drainage plan in place to prevent the road from fooding.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)

The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council’s response.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mrs X says the road on which she lives is subject to flooding in severe weather and she has had problems with this for over a decade. In 2007 her vehicle was damaged beyond repair when she tried to drive through floodwater to leave her home. She also says in the past standing water has frozen and made access impossible.
6. She made a formal complaint to the Council in 2025 about the flooding. The Council told her that it and installed a pumping system to alleviate flooding on the road from which her own access road is served in 2015. The system generally reduced standing water on the carriageway but it could not address all of the flooding all of the time. The Council advised Mrs X that her own road is not a public highway but a private road and there is no obligation for the Council to maintain this road as it is the frontagers’ responsibility.
7. We will not investigate this complaint because it concerns matters which the complainant has been aware of for more than 12 months before they complained to us. The time for receiving complaints is from when someone became aware of the matter they wished to complain about, not when they complained to the Council or it issued its final response. We would expect someone to complain to us within a year, even if they were dissatisfied with the time the complaints procedure was taking.
8. We have some discretion to consider older complaints but, in this case, even had Mrs X complained earlier it is unlikely we could have investigated. Councils as highway authorities have a duty to ensure that the public highway is maintained and passable for traffic and pedestrians. However, this duty does not extend to private roads and accesses which are the responsibility of the residents whose properties share a frontage with the private road. If a resident believes the Council is being negligent by allowing flooding to take place on private land they would have to seek a civil remedy in the courts.

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Final decision

9. We will not exercise discretion investigate this complaint about flooding on a private road. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Mrs X could not have complained to us sooner.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman