Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to create a low traffic neighbourhood close to the complainant’s home. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault in how the Council introduced the scheme.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Mr X, complains about the Council’s decision to create a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) near his home. Mr X says the Council failed to properly consider the views of residents when making its decision and failed to properly gather sufficient data to properly inform its decision making.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. In 2020, the Council trialled the implementation of a LTN in an area close to Mr X’s home. Prior to the trial, the Council collected data including data about vehicle, cycle, pedestrian and bus usage in the area within and around the proposed LTN.
6. During the trial of the LTN the Council collected the same data and compared it with the data collected before the trial. In 2021, a report was produced, and decision makers concluded that further data collection was needed.
7. In 2022, the Council provided a further detailed report. It provided details of how data was collected, and analysed. It outlined its findings an explained the limitations of the data. It also outlined the results of the consultation process with residents.
8. The Council approved the permanent implementation of the LTN, a decision which was later reviewed by the Oversight Committee. During the review, members of the committee considered the findings of the report and discussed concerns raised about the data collection and analysis and about how residents’ views had been considered. The Oversight Committee subsequently confirmed the decision to implement the LTN.
9. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because I see no evidence of fault in how the Council has dealt with the matter. The report fully outlined how data had been collected and analysed as well as the outcome of consultation with residents. Whilst Mr X disagrees with how the Council collected and analysed the data this does not mean it has done anything wrong. It is for the Council and not the Ombudsman to decide how and what data is collected. If the decision makers who viewed the report had concerns about these matters they could have requested more data be collected, as what happened in 2021.

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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