The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to purchase some land she owns. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify our involvement and no worthwhile outcome we could achieve.
The complaint
Ms X complained the Council refused to purchase and adopt some land she owns, which she says she is finding difficult to maintain.
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: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Ms X.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Ms X owns a property on a housing development. She says she was not aware when she bought the property that she also owns a plot of land separated from her home by a path. She asked the Council to purchase the land, but it has declined to do so.
The Council considered the request but declined to purchase the land because it said it did not serve any highway purchase and there was no benefit to the wider public from it adopting and maintaining it.
The Council has considered the request and explained its reasons for refusal. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the way it decided this to justify our involvement. In any case, we could not achieve a worthwhile outcome because we could not compel the Council to purchase the land in question.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council to justify our involvement and no worthwhile outcome we could achieve by doing so.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman