Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about delay by the Council in responding to Miss X’s contact with it about damage caused by a pothole. This is because this does not represent a level of injustice that would warrant our further involvement.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council has not responded to her appeal against its denial of liability for damage caused to her car by a pothole. Miss X says she has provided further information to the Council, but it has not responded.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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 any fault has not caused significant injustice to the person who complained (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. I recognise Miss X’s frustration, but we will not investigate as there is insufficient injustice caused to her from her complaint to warrant our further involvement. The substantive injustice is the damage caused to Miss X’s car. We cannot determine if the Council is legally liable for this, as this can only be decided in court. There is a relatively simple, low-cost procedure open to anyone to make such a claim. It is therefore reasonable to expect Miss X to resort to such action, if the Council does not respond or if it continues to deny liability.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is insufficient injustice from it to warrant our further involvement

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman