Milton Keynes Council (26 012 232)
Category : Transport and highways > Traffic management
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 02 Aug 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate X’s complaint about repairs to traffic lights in the Council’s area. Any injustice caused to X by the issue is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
The complaint
- X complains that the Council has failed to update them about ongoing repairs to traffic lights in the area and about how it dealt with X’s complaint about this matter.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures.
- I understand the traffic problems increase X’s journey time and that X has been to some effort chasing the Council. While this may be frustrating, I do not consider the injustice suffered significant enough to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman.
- It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
Final decision
- We will not investigate X’s complaint because any injustice caused by faulty traffic lights is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman