Rutland County Council (21 006 991)
Category : Transport and highways > Traffic management
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 28 Sep 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to temporarily close a road where the complainant lives. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify an investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about the Council’s decision to close a main road where he lives for 12 weeks, to enable the repair of a railway bridge by Network Rail. He says the Council should have insisted that Network Rail made its contractors work with a single lane of traffic open.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A (6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X, including the Council’s responses to him.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- In its responses to Mr X’s complaints, the Council explained Network Rail required the 12-week road closure. It confirmed that it challenged the proposed duration of the work. However, the closure was necessary to protect the public and workforce for while the work to replace the bridge took place.
- We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached.
- The Council has provided Mr X with a reasonable explanation for the decision to close the road for 12 weeks. Based on the information I have seen, there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant an investigation.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault in the way the Council’s actions.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman