Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint of discrimination relating to the installation of a bollard to prevent vehicular access over a raised kerb to his driveway. This is because the complaint is late and the issue only affects Mr X now because he chose to purchase the property with the bollard in place. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council has failed to take similar action against others because the issue does not cause him significant injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council installed a bollard which prevents him from accessing his driveway while he was in the process of buying it from the former owner, Miss Y. He says it has refused to remove the bollard despite not taking similar action against the owners of other properties in the area who also drive over the kerb to access their driveway.

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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)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
5. The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. The Council issued Miss Y a warning not to drive over the kerb/pavement to access her driveway in 2020 and, when she did not comply with the warning, it installed a bollard in the pavement in July 2021. Miss Y complained to us about the installation of the bollard but we declined to investigate her complaint as there was not enough evidence of fault.
8. Mr X bought the property from Miss Y in September 2021 but he did not complain to us until July 2024. Any complaint about the installation of the bollard is therefore late and concerns a matter we have already considered.
9. However even if the complaint was in-time we would not investigate it. This is because the installation did not affect Mr X at the time; he is only affected now because he purchased the property with it in place. It was therefore Mr X’s actions in completing the purchase which caused the injustice he claims, rather than the installation of the bollard itself. He is of course entitled to ask the Council to remove the bollard but it is under no obligation to agree.
10. Mr X suggests he is complaining about the issue now because the Council has not issued warnings or installed bollards outside other peoples’ homes as it did with this, but what it decides to do in other cases is not relevant to what it did in his. Mr X clearly has a sense of unfairness about the matter but this is not a significant enough injustice to warrant investigation.
11. Mr X also complains about the Council’s handling of his information requests, but this is a matter for the Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioner is better placed to decide if Mr X is entitled to the information he has requested and whether the Council’s response to his request was adequate. Its decisions also carry a right of appeal. We will not therefore consider this issue further.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is late and the issues Mr X complains about did not cause him significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman