Summary: Miss X complained about the Council’s delay repairing the footpath outside her home and about the Council’s handling of her complaint. While its approach to the footpath repair was not fault, we find the Council at fault for failing to make reasonable adjustments when responding to Miss X’s complaint. This caused her avoidable difficulty understanding the response. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a service improvement.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Councils delay in repairing the footpath outside her home.
2. Mrs X also complained about the Council’s handling of her complaint, specifically:
1. the time taken to resolve the complaint;
2. she was unable to progress to stage 2 of the complaint process; and
3. the Council failed to consider her disability and reasonable adjustment request.
3. She says the uneven surface caused her to fall, resulting in injuries.
4. Miss X wants the Council to complete the footpath repairs. She also wants the Council to improve its complaint handling service to ensure timely responses and to provide adjustments for people with additional needs.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
6. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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What I have and have not investigated

7. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) 
8. Miss X says she first raised reports about the footpath in 2021. I will not investigate matters before November 2023 because these are late and there are no good reasons why Miss X was unable to raise this with us sooner.

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered evidence provided by Miss X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
10. Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Relevant law and legislation

The Council’s duty and process for reporting a highways issue

11. The Council has a duty, under the Highways Act 1980, to inspect and maintain the highway. It carries out scheduled cyclic inspections of highways and footpaths to identify any safety issues and defects.
12. The Council provides a process for the public to report highway issues. When a reported issue meets the Council’s minimum criteria, it is recorded as a defect in its risk register and assigned a risk factor score. This score is based on the likelihood and severity of the issue and determines how urgently the defect should be addressed.

Reasonable adjustments

13. The reasonable adjustment duty is set out in the Equality Act 2010 and applies to any body which carries out a public function. It aims to make sure that a disabled person can use a service as close as it is reasonably possible to get to the standard usually offered to non-disabled people.
14. Service providers are under a positive and proactive duty to take steps to remove or prevent obstacles to accessing their service. If the adjustments are reasonable, they must make them.

What happened

15. In October 2024, Miss X complained to the Council that no action had been taken on the footpath defects she had reported in January 2023. She told the Council she had tripped due to the defects, resulting in a strain. In her complaint, she asked the Council to respond via both email and post, and in easy read and large print formats.
16. Later that month, the Council responded to the complaint. It confirmed it was aware of previous reports and explained that all defects are managed in line with its highways maintenance prioritisation process. The Council noted that Miss X’s trip suggested the footpath may have worsened since the last inspection and said it would send a technician to reassess the defect and arrange for any necessary repairs.
17. The Council provided Miss X with a link to the Council’s highways website to track the progress of the matter. It also informed her that its corporate complaints procedure follows a one stage process and advised her to contact the Ombudsman if she remained dissatisfied.
18. In January 2025, the Council updated its highways website to confirm it had inspected the footpath and will schedule a repair.
19. After the complaint was referred to the Ombudsman, the Council confirmed that the repairs remain scheduled and would be carried out in due course.

My findings

20. The Council appropriately re-inspected the footpath following Miss X’s complaint and scheduled the necessary repairs. There is no evidence of fault in the Council’s actions or how it made this decision. If a Council follows its procedures correctly, we cannot question its judgment or decisions.
21. I acknowledge Miss X’s frustration that the repairs are yet to be completed, however the Council has an established process for prioritising highway repairs and has followed that in this case.
22. The Council responded to Miss X’s complaint in 10 working days, which is within its published timescales. There is no fault in the time taken for the Council to respond.
23. The Council’s corporate complaints procedure follows a one stage process, and its response correctly informed Miss X that she could complain to the Ombudsman if she remained dissatisfied, which she did. There is no evidence of fault in how the Council handled her complaint.
24. However, the Council has acknowledged that it failed to provide Miss X’s complaint response by post, in easy read, or large print, despite her request. This failure to make reasonable adjustments is fault and caused Miss X distress and avoidable difficulty in understanding the response.

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Action

25. To remedy the injustice caused by the above fault, within four weeks of the date of my final decision, the Council has agreed to:

• apologise to Miss X in line with our guidance on Making an effective apology; and
• using this complaint as a case study, issue a briefing note to remind staff of its duty to provide reasonable adjustments.

26. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

27. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed to the actions to remedy the injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman