The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about road signage the Council has installed. This is because the matter complained about has not caused Ms X any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Ms X complains the Council has installed incorrect and confusing road signage, which does not comply with the traffic management order, to trap and fine motorists. Ms X says her friends have been illegally fined. Ms X has not been fined herself as her friends had already warned her of the issue.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
It is our decision whether to start an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended) 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
Ms X complains about the matter set out in paragraph one, above.
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint. This is because the matter complained about has not caused Ms X any significant personal injustice which is so serious that it warrants an investigation. We do not investigate every complaint we receive and we must focus our limited public resources on investigating those complaints where a person has suffered a significant personal injustice as a result of alleged fault by a body in our jurisdiction. This is not the case here. Ms X says she was nearly fined, but was not. This does not warrant a further investigation by this office.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the matter complained about has not caused her any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman