Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to reinstate a wooden post next to a footpath. This is because the matter does not cause Mr X significant injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council has refused to reinstate a wooden post which he says was put in place to stop vehicles from driving along a public footpath as a short-cut between two roads.

Back to top

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 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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

4. Mr X contacted the Council in 2023 to report that the post had been removed and to ask the Council to reinstate it. The Council ultimately decided that the post is on private land and that it is not responsible for it, but Mr X disagrees.
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. From the information I have seen it is highly possible that the land in question is under private ownership and that the question of whether to reinstate it is a matter for the relevant landowner. But regardless of this we will not investigate the point further because the issue does not cause Mr X significant injustice.
7. Mr X does not claim any specific direct impact from the Council’s refusal to reinstate the post and we could not say it must do so where it considers the land belongs to a third party. In any event there are other posts which would stop vehicles from driving along the footpath and which therefore achieve the outcome Mr X wants.

Back to top

Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council’s refusal to reinstate the post does not cause Mr X significant injustice.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman