The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s adoption and maintenance of a strip of land since the 1970’s. There is insufficient evidence of any significant injustice which would warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mrs X complained about the Council’s failure to maintain the surface of a strip of land behind her home which she says should be maintained as a footway. She says the strip is overgrown and attracts dog-waste and weeds.
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, or any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mrs X says she has tried to get the Council to take action over some land at the back of her property which she believes should be maintained as part of the adopted highway. The houses were built in 1977 and the highways adopted. However, although the pavement on one side of the adjacent road is kerbed and surfaced, the strip of land on the other side, behind her home has been neglected for many years.
In response to Mrs X’s complaint, the Council told her that the records from 50 years ago are not very detailed, but it considers that the strip has not been historically surfaced in recent decades and it is considered to be a margin. There are no houses fronting onto it and a perfectly usable footway on the opposite side makes it unnecessary for access by pedestrians. For these reasons it has no intention of surfacing or maintaining the strip now when its budget for repairing existing footways in use is under pressure.
The Local Government Act 1974 allows us to investigate complaints where fault has resulted in a significant injustice to the complainant. In these circumstances I do not consider that the injustice caused to Mrs X is sufficient to warrant the public expense of an investigation by the Ombudsman.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s adoption and maintenance of a strip of land since the 1970’s. There is insufficient evidence of any significant injustice which would warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman