Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about travel disruption caused by emergency roadworks near Mrs X’s daughter’s school. This is because the Council was not responsible for the roadworks and the injustice Mrs X claims is not significant enough to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council failed to properly manage emergency roadworks which started on the first day of her daughter’s GCSE exams. She says the roadworks caused traffic jams which could have made her daughter late for her first exams and may have affected her results.
2. Mrs X says the issue caused her daughter anxiety and she now has to leave earlier to make sure she gets to school on time.

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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, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(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 Mrs X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. We do not investigate all the complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider various tests. These include the alleged injustice to the person complaining. We only investigate the most serious complaints.
7. I understand Mrs X and her daughter were concerned about what could have happened as a result of the traffic caused by the roadworks but she confirms her daughter arrived in time for her exam and we could not say any anxiety affected her exam results. The injustice she claims is therefore not significant enough to warrant investigation.
8. In any event, the Council has confirmed the roadworks were carried out by a utility company and were not authorised in advance by the Council. The law gives the utility company the power to start works in the event of an emergency and seek permission once they have already started, but it does not allow the Council to refuse in these circumstances. We could not therefore hold the Council responsible for the issue Mrs X complains about.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the injustice Mrs X claims is not significant enough to warrant investigation and is not the result of the Council’s actions.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman