The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about work to the highway carried out outside X’s property. This is because the complainant has an alternative legal remedy, to pursue a claim of negligence causing injury through the courts. Any remaining injustice is not significant enough to warrant investigation.
The complaint
X complains about work to the highways outside their property. X says the works caused them to injure themselves and also caused inconvenience.
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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)) The law 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 the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
I will not investigate X’s complaint that works carried by the Council caused them an injury. Negligence claims and interpreting the law around civil liability are generally best decided by a court where the Council does not accept insurance liability. Only a court can decide whether the problem should have been dealt with by the Council before it caused injury, or if it is liable to pay damages.
I will not investigate X’s complaint that the works caused X an inconvenience. This is because I don’t consider that this amounts to a significant enough injustice to warrant investigation by us.
Final decision
We will not investigate X’s complaint because they have an alternative legal remedy, to pursue a claim of negligence causing injury through the courts. Any remaining injustice is not significant enough to warrant investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman