The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: Mr X complains about the Council’s decision not to carry out road drainage works to prevent flooding at his property. We will not investigate the complaint because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, says the Council should carry out road drainage works to its road to prevent his private road from receiving excess runoff and potentially flooding his property.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended) 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 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 we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
I gave Mr X the opportunity to comment on my draft decision and considered what he said.
My assessment
Mr X contacted the Council to ask that it carry out works to address excess water runoff from one of its road which was travelling down his private road and which he feared could potentially led to his property being flooded.
The Council responded to advise that an officer had visited the site to inspect the highway drainage but had found no problems with its operation and so it would be taking no further action. It reminded Mr X that as his road is a private road it is the responsibility of residents to install additional gullies and maintain soakaways.
While I understand Mr X is dissatisfied with the Council’s response, it is not our role to question decisions a council makes if it has followed the right steps and considered the relevant evidence and information. An officer visited the site and made a professional judgement on the existing drainage system and it is not open to us to review the merits of that decision.
In responding to my draft decision Mr X says he does not believe the Council visited the site. However, the Council has confirmed a site took place and has provided proof of this. That Mr X does not accept the Council’s decision is not evidence of fault and we will not investigate the complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint. This is because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman