The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint that his car was damaged due to the Council’s failure to maintain the highway. This is because it is reasonable for Mr B to put in a compensation claim, and if needed, take the Council to court.
The complaint
Mr B complains his car was damaged due to the Council’s failure to maintain a road it is responsible for. Mr B says the Council is failing to maintain roads throughout the Council’s area. Mr B would like the Council to pay him compensation for the damage to his vehicle and to improve the condition of roads.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
The Act says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr B.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We do not normally investigate complaints about vehicle damage caused by highway disrepair. This is because in effect such complaints are that an organisation has been negligent. We take the view negligence claims are best decided by an organisation’s insurers, and if needed, the courts.
The Council as a local highways authority is expected to routinely monitor the state of highways and carry out repairs where necessary. But importantly, the level of maintenance, frequency of inspection, and threshold for repair is not set out in law and is open to interpretation.
Also, a local highways authority has a statutory defence if it can show it could not reasonably have been expected to put right a defect before an incident happened. This means the presence of a road defect at the time of an incident is unlikely to be enough on its own to prove negligence.
Only the court can decide if the Council has complied with its statutory maintenance duty and whether the Council is entitled to rely on this statutory defence. Also, unlike the courts, we have no powers to enforce an award of damages.
So, I would usually expect someone in Mr B’s position to put in a compensation claim to the Council’s insurers, and if needed, pursue the claim at court.
I find it is reasonable for Mr B to do this. So, we will not investigate this complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because it is reasonable for him to take the Council to court.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman