London Borough of Waltham Forest (24 017 001)
Category : Transport and highways > Highway repair and maintenance
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 28 Jan 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a personal injury claim as this is a matter for the courts. There is also insufficient evidence of fault from the Council’s handling of the matter to justify our further action.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council has not contacted him since he reported a fall on an uneven manhole cover to it in 2022.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
- 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 there is not enough evidence of fault or fault causing an injustice, to justify investigating (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X holds the Council responsible for his personal injury. Only the courts can determine such matters. There is a procedure open to anyone to make such a claim in court or Mr X could ask a solicitor to take on his case on a conditional fee basis. As such, it is reasonable to expect Mr X to pursue this matter through the courts.
- The Council says it sent Mr X claim forms in August 2023 and December 2024 but to date, these have not been returned by Mr X. While I recognise Mr X is unhappy there has been no progress on his claim, this suggests this is not due to Council fault.
- For these reasons, we will not investigate.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and this matter is essentially in any case best dealt with in court.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman