Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her concerns about access problems on the roads near her home. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s handling to justify us investigating further.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council has failed to properly address difficulties caused by parked vehicles on her housing estate. Mrs X believes the Council has not considered the risk to pedestrians and access difficulties to take preventive action. She wants the Council to take a proactive approach rather than waiting for incidents to occur.

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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 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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

3. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Council has explained to Mrs X that large parts of the housing estate where she lives consists of unadopted roads. The Council does own the roads or have control over how these areas are managed or maintained. The Council explained that for the portion of adopted road it had control over, no incidents of injury or obstruction had been reported to it since the estate was built. The Council also confirmed emergency services had not reported access issues. The Council advised Mrs X in the absence of such evidence, it had no grounds to intervene on the adopted portion of road. The Council suggested Mrs X may wish to contact the owner of the unadopted roads to highlight her concerns.
7. We are not an appeal body. We cannot question if a Council’s decision is right or wrong if there was no fault in the way the decision was reached. The Council has considered Mrs X’s concerns and the information it has about the area where she lives. It has concluded there is not enough justification to take further action. This is a decision the Council was entitled to make. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council’s decision was reached to justify us questioning the merits of that decision. Mrs X’s disagreement with the Council’s decision is not evidence of fault.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision-making to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman