Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council has consulted on a proposed traffic management scheme. The alleged faults have not yet caused Mr X a significant personal injustice, and it is reasonable to expect him to use the alternative court remedy if the Council decides to proceed with the scheme.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the way the Council has conducted its consultations on a proposed traffic management scheme near where he lives.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We can 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. So, we do not start an investigation if we decide:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

4. And 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council, which consisted of their complaint correspondence.
6. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. As I understand it, no decision has yet been made by the Council on whether to proceed with making the traffic management order for the scheme. Therefore, and with reference to paragraph 3 above, I do not consider Mr X has yet been caused a significant personal injustice as result of the alleged faults in the consultation processes, so we will not start an investigation at the present time.
8. And even if the Council does decide to make the order in the future, Mr X will have the option to challenge its validity via the High Court. I consider it reasonable to expect Mr X to use the alternative remedy expressly put in place by Parliament, so the complaint is outside our jurisdiction and will not be investigated for this reason also.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the alleged fault has not yet caused a significant personal injustice, and it is reasonable to expect him to use the alternative court remedy if the Council proceeds with the making the order.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman