Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to grant permission to install a dropped kerb or the Council’s decision to charge Mr X to relocate a lamppost outside his home. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council:
1. rejected his application for a dropped kerb outside his home; and
2. told him that he would be charged the cost of relocating a streetlamp outside his home if he wanted a dropped kerb.
2. Mr X said the matter caused him frustration and time and trouble.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X does not currently have access to his driveway via a dropped kerb. He therefore has no legal right to cross the public pathway to store his vehicle in the boundary of his property until a dropped kerb is approved and installed.
7. The Council told Mr X it would not grant approval for a dropped kerb unless he paid the cost of relocating a lamppost that is currently situated outside his home. The lamppost was already in place before Mr X made his application. Mr X complained and said he should not have to pay to relocate the lamppost.
8. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong.
9. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s decision-making to warrant an investigation, and so we will not.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman