Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about highway maintenance because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss Y complained the Council has refused to increase the level of the pavement outside her property which she says has sunk over several years.
2. Miss Y says the issue is a safety hazard for her and her family and feels the Council’s decision is unjustified.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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

4. I considered information Miss Y provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss Y asked the Council to increase the height of the pavement outside her property, saying that over a number of years the level had dropped. Miss Y told the Council that the level had decreased so much that she was now struggling to exit her property due to the change in level.
6. The Council responded to her complaint, explaining that following examination of images from an online street photo mapping service and from images take before and after street works carried out in 2021, it did not believe there was a change in the level of the pavement from Miss Y’s property. It also declined to place a step outside Miss Y’s property as it considered the entrance to Miss Y’s home to be too narrow to do so. Miss Y was unhappy with the response and therefore approached us.
7. We are not an appeals service. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached.
8. In this complaint, the Council considered relevant information, including measurements of Miss Y’s doorway and photographic information showing the level of the pavement at different times. From this it formed its view that it would not take action in this matter. While Miss Y may be unhappy with the outcome, the decision has been made properly and therefore there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigation. We will not investigate.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Miss Y’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman