Westmorland and Furness Council (24 015 272)
Category : Transport and highways > Highway repair and maintenance
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 17 Jan 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about highway repairs because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
The complaint
- Mr Y complained the Council failed to give prior notice for a road closure. Mr Y says this led to him being unable to get home due to the road works. He is also concerned about visitors to the area who will have, like him, been unable to avoid the traffic build up he says was caused.
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 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))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information Mr Y provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered a serious loss, harm or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss of injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
- While Mr Y may feel strongly about the issue, he has not suffered a serious harm, loss or distress which would justify our use of public funds and resources to investigate. As any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, we will not investigate.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr Y’s complaint because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman