Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council is ignoring residents’ concerns about a new road layout. There is insufficient evidence of fault, and we cannot achieve the outcome the complainant is seeking.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council is ignoring residents’ safety concerns about the new layout of a road junction close to where she lives.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We can 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. So, we do not start an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

3. With regard to the first bullet point, we can consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered:
• information provided by Mrs X and the Council, which included their complaint correspondence.
• information about the scheme, on the Council’s website.
• the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. I appreciate Mrs X is very unhappy about the new layout of the road junction.
6. But 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, or tell the Council how to operate its services. As such, an investigation by the Ombudsman could not achieve the outcomes Mrs X is seeking, as we cannot direct the Council to alter the road layout or reduce the speed limit.
7. The Ombudsman can 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, regardless of whether the complainant disagrees with the decision the Council made.
8. Here, the new layout has been the subject of input from a working group, public consultation, feedback from stakeholders, ongoing monitoring, and several rounds of road safety audits. The complaint responses also provide explanations of the reasoning behind the Council’s decisions and why it considers the junction is safe. These are professional judgements the Council is entitled to reach. As such, an investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to conclude there was fault in the way the Council implemented and reviewed the scheme, so we will not start an investigation for this reason too.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault, and we cannot achieve the outcome she is seeking.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman