Suffolk County Council (23 018 535)
Category : Transport and highways > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 13 Mar 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to protect the public’s right of use of his neighbour’s land. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council and we cannot achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mr X.
The complaint
- The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council has failed to take action against his neighbour for obstructing access to land which has in the past been used as a turning place.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- As the local highway authority the Council has a duty to protect public rights including the right of access to the public highway. But the land concerned in this case does not form part of the public highway; it is private land owned and maintained by Mr X’s neighbour. The Council therefore has no basis to insist the neighbour removes the obstruction and allows people to use it to turn their vehicles around.
- It is clear the issue here causes Mr X significant inconvenience and frustration but this is not the result of any fault by the Council. We could also not achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mr X as we cannot say it must do as Mr X wants.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council and we cannot achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mr X by investigating the matter further.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman