The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about highways because any injustice is not significant enough to warrant investigation.
The complaint
Mr Y complained the Council failed to grit the road near his child’s school, leading the path to be very slippery in icy weather in the winter months. Mr Y was also unhappy with how the Council dealt with his complaint.
Mr Y felt the icy conditions caused a safety hazard to him, other parents and the children at the school.
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)) 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.
How I considered this complaint
I considered information Mr Y provided and 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 a serious loss, harm or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss of injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
In Mr Y’s case while he may feel strongly about the issue, his injustice is the worry he experienced at the time. This is not a serious loss, harm or distress which would warrant an investigation into the complaint. Consequently, we will not investigate.
As we are not investigating the substantive issue, it is not a good use of public resources for us to investigate how the Council dealt with the complaint and we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr Y’s complaint because any injustice is not significant enough to warrant investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman