Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about repairing a street sign because there is insufficient evidence of injustice. In addition, the Council has now fixed the sign.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, says the Council has delayed repairing a street sign. He wants the Council to immediately repair the sign and give him compensation.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if we believe the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I read the complaint and the Council’s responses. I found out the Council fixed the sign at the end of March. I considered comments Mr X made in reply to a draft of this decision.

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What I found

What happened

4. Mr X lives at property no.5. A street sign was erected in 2011. It had arrows showing numbers 1-3 in one direction and numbers 4-14 in the other direction.
5. Mr X reported the sign to the Council in June. He explained that someone had stuck a number 5 over the number 3 making the sign unclear.
6. Mr X complained in December because the Council had not responded or repaired the sign. The Council apologised for the delay. It said that due to COVID-19 the highways team had been prioritising urgent work and helping to maintain social distancing measures. It also said the team had been working to make traffic changes for the introduction of vaccination centres. It explained it has a small budget for replacing signs but said the sign would be repaired.
7. Mr X wants an immediate repair and compensation. He says he has had problems getting deliveries due to the unclear sign. He also says the time it has taken the Council to reply is unacceptable.
8. The Council repaired the sign at the end of March.

Assessment

9. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of injustice and because the Council has fixed the sign. I appreciate the repair has taken some time but the Council has explained that it has a limited budget and had to divert resources to COVID-19 issues. In addition, while one of the numbers on the sign had been obscured, the correct numbers can be determined by the other numbers and the arrows. I appreciate the delay may have been frustrating and annoying but the impact is not significant enough to require an investigation.

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Final decision

10. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman