Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council doing nighttime highway works on a road near his property and how it decided when to do those works. The matters Mr X has complained about have not caused sufficient significant injustice to him and his family to justify us investigating.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has:
1. done works to a road near his property at night multiple times in the last six years;
2. prioritised the works’ impacts on traffic over the wellbeing of local residents;
3. done similar works on nearby roads in the daytime;
4. not been transparent in how it decides when to do works.
2. Mr X says the night works have affected him and other residents in the area. He says they have caused regular sleep disruption, which affects both his wellbeing and his ability to function the following day. Mr X says it is particularly challenging for families with young children. He says he and other residents are frustrated their concerns are treated as secondary to traffic flow and that similar works are done in the daytime on other local roads.

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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:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained; or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(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 from Mr X, relevant online maps, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council says it must decide when is best to do highway works, taking into account impacts on traffic and residents. It says the amount or type of work required on a road may mean officers choose nighttime working. Mr X considers the Council’s decision to do works at night is unfair to residents while favouring better daytime traffic flow. He says the Council has done similar work on other local roads in the day.
6. Even if there has been fault by the Council in the matters Mr X has raised, we will not investigate. We must prioritise our resources on cases where a claimed council fault has resulted in a significant personal injustice. Mr X says there have been multiple incidences of nighttime highway working near his property in the last six years. He does not say how many events there were in that time, how long they lasted or what time of night they stopped. The last incident before his complaint to the Council was drain maintenance in autumn 2025, which he says ended at 10.45pm. That Mr X has complained to us after six years-worth of incidents indicates they were not so frequent nor the cause of such significant impacts each time to prompt him to complain to us about them much sooner.
7. We recognise night works caused disruption, annoyance and inconvenience to Mr X and his family, affecting their home and work lives when they happened and for a time after. But these impacts from the multiple incidences have been for short periods, spread over six years. Mr X’s complaint refers to other residents affected by the same issues, but any impacts on them are not Mr X’s injustice. We also note Mr X considers other local roads’ residents have not been caused the same level of impacts from nighttime works. But another area’s residents’ good fortune is not an injustice to Mr X. There is insufficient significant injustice to him and his family here to warrant us investigating so we will not do so.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the matters he has complained about have not caused sufficient significant injustice to him and his family to warrant us investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman