Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal of her application for a dropped kerb. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault in the way it reached its decision.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains about the Council’s decision to refuse her application for a dropped kerb. She believes the Council’s criteria for driveway space is excessive and goes against targets for increasing the number of people with electric vehicles.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. We are not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong.
5. The Council’s Vehicle Crossover Application Criteria sets out the criteria against which all applications are assessed. It states the minimum size criteria for granting of a dropped kerb is at least 4.8 metres long between the back of the pavement or property boundary and the front of your building.
6. Mrs X’s property frontage measures only 4.6 metres, so it does not meet the current eligibility criteria. The Council therefore refused Mrs X’s application and I have seen no evidence of fault in the way it reached its decision; we cannot therefore criticise it.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman