Essex County Council (26 002 862)
Category : Transport and highways > Rights of way
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 22 Jul 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to close a footpath. This is because there is not evidence of a significant injustice caused to Mr X.
The complaint
- Mr X complained the Council temporarily closed a footpath, but it has not opened since November 2025. He said the Council should reopen the footpath immediately regardless of its state of repair. He said it causes a larger diversion and prevents free roaming of land. He wants the Council to open the footpath and repair it when possible.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 injustice to the person who complained, or
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- In its response to Mr X the Council said the closure was necessary due to a footpath slip which compromises safety. It said it will only open the footpath once repair work is complete and there is a plan for a delivery of repairs.
- We will not investigate this complaint. This is because we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by an organisation. In addition, we will not normally investigate a complaint where the complainant is using their enquiry as a way of raising a wider community campaign about something of general concern, but where they have not suffered injustice.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no evidence he was cased a significant injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman