Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s refusal to make changes to the public highway to give Miss X safer access to a nearby village. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council or to show its actions caused Miss X significant injustice.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council refused her request to install a dropped kerb opposite her property entrance, or to create a new footpath on her side of the road, to allow her to safely walk to a nearby village. She says the current pedestrian access arrangements are unsafe and the Council has not properly considered her points.

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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 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

4. We are not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong.
5. The Council is under no obligation to carry out the improvements Miss X requested it has explained the reasons it will not do so. I have seen no evidence of fault in the way it reached the decision and we cannot therefore criticise it.
6. I also cannot say the decision itself is the cause of the injustice Miss X claims. Publicly available records show she purchased the property recently and she would therefore have been aware of the lack of a dropped kerb or pedestrian footpath on her side of the road at the time. Had she felt this was unsafe and unacceptable she could have decided not to purchase the property; she would not then have been affected by the current layout. She is only affected by it now as a result of her decision to proceed with the purchase and we cannot recommend the Council makes the improvements she wants to mitigate the impact of this decision.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council or to show its actions caused Miss X significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman