The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about councillor involvement in the introduction of traffic orders by the Council as Mr X is not caused a significant injustice from this.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the conduct of several councillors in relation to the Council deciding to introduce traffic orders in his area. In essence, Mr X complains the councillors had vested interests in the schemes and made no attempt to engage with members of the public who had differing views. Mr X considers the traffic orders were improperly made and cause traffic congestion.
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 or we can achieve no meaningful outcome for the person complaining (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We will not investigate this complaint as Mr X is not caused a significant injustice from it. The councillors Mr X complained about did not have individual decision-making powers in respect of the traffic orders. In addition, Mr X had the right to seek to remedy any injustice caused to him from any permanent traffic orders made by the Council via an appeal to the High Court.
For these reasons, we will not investigate this complaint plus we could achieve no meaningful outcome for Mr X by so doing.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he is not caused a significant injustice from it and we can achieve no meaningful outcome for him.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman