Summary: Mr X complains the council wasted taxpayer’s money and failed to keep residents informed about road works in his area. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. Any loss to the taxpayer is a matter which concerns all or most of the residents in the Council’s area. The law forbids the Ombudsman from investigating such complaints. And the Council has apologised if Mr X did not receive information it says it sent about the dates when the work would be carried out.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council wasted taxpayer’s money because it failed to ensure its contractor correctly resurfaced roads close to his home. He says this meant the re-surfacing had to be repeated.
2. He also complaints the Council failed to tell residents of the dates they would be carrying out the work.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
5. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome.

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

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered Mr X’s complaints and correspondence with the council and its responses. He had the opportunity to comment on the draft version of this decision.

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What I found

7. Mr X has been complaining for some years about the Council’s lack of action on highway safety concerns in the roads surrounding his home.
8. He complains the Council failed to ensure its contractor’s resurfacing work was substandard. This meant the work had to be repeated and is a waste of taxpayer’s money.
9. The law says I cannot investigate anything that affects all or most of the inhabitants of an areas. A complaint about a council wasting taxpayers’ money falls within this restriction.
10. Mr X also complains the Council failed to tell residents when the roadwork would take place, causing inconvenience.
11. The Council delivered a leaflet to all the roads affected by the work. This stated the work was scheduled to start on 5 August and finish on 12 August,
12. The work did not take place as scheduled, Mr X complained to the Council at the beginning of September that work had started without warning.
13. The Council told Mr X the work was delayed due to poor weather. And that it had delivered new leaflets to all affected households telling them of the new dates.
14. Mr X denies receiving the second leaflet., He also says his neighbour did not receive a second leaflet. The Council has apologised it they did not receive this, but understand leaflets were delivered in the area.
15. I understand Mr X is frustrated by work starting unexpectedly. And this may have inconvenienced him. However, the Council has apologised if he did not receive information about the new work schedule. I consider an apology to be an acceptable response and further investigation of this point will not lead to a different outcome.

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Final decision

16. For the reasons given above, I cannot and should not investigate this complaint.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman