The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about highways management. This is because the complaint is late with no good reason to investigate it now.
The complaint
Mr Y complained the Council has failed to act around the poor and potentially dangerous driving in his area, particularly by HGVs.
Mr Y says he is concerned about accidents and there are now cracks in his property which he believes have been caused by the problem driving.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information Mr Y provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr Y was initially in correspondence with his local parish council about the problem in October 2020. The parish council referred Mr Y to the Council.
Mr Y wrote to his local councillor in October 2020. There was further correspondence including Mr Y’s complaint and a letter from his MP between October 2020 and May 2021. The Council gave its final response to his complaint at the start of August 2021. Mr Y approached us at the end of August 2022.
As Mr Y has been aware of his reason to complain for over 12 months before coming to us his complaint is late. As explained in paragraph three, we cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons.
Mr Y has not provided any good reasons why he did not bring his complaint to us within 12 months of knowing about the matter. It is reasonable to expect him to have complained sooner.
As there are no good reasons to exercise our discretion to investigate this late complaint, we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr Y’s complaint because the complaint is late with no good reason to investigate it now.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman