Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s intention to close her road. This is because the Council did not actually proceed with the road closure and any injustice Mrs X suffered from its actions is not significant enough to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains the Council failed to respond to objections from residents about road closures under its “play street” initiative and delayed in responding to her complaints about the matter. She believes the scheme is inappropriate for her road and says it has spoilt the summer for her and the majority of the other residents who live on the road.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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, or
• 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

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

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My assessment

5. We do not investigate all the complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider various tests. These include the alleged injustice to the person complaining. We only investigate the most serious complaints.
6. I understand Mrs X is opposed to road closures for the scheme to run in her road but the Council did not proceed with any closures. It notified residents of one closure, which was not part of a regular schedule and was only intended to last for three hours, but decided not to carry it out following objections from residents. It did not then proceed with any other proposed closures, whether regular or one-off. I am therefore satisfied any injustice Mrs X suffered as a result of the initial proposal to close the road was not significant enough to warrant investigation and does not require any further remedy.
7. Mrs X is also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with her complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council’s actions did not cause Mrs X significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman