Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about what rights of way the complainant has over a lane. It is reasonable to expect the complainant to have contacted us sooner and, in any case, an investigation would not resolve the dispute.

The complaint

1. Mr X’s complaint concerns a dispute about what rights of way he has over a lane to the rear of his home.

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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:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

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

4. We also 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The 12-month time restriction detailed in paragraph 4 above appears to apply to this complaint. From the documents Mr X provided, the dispute about what rights of way exist over the land has been ongoing for a number of years. I see no good reasons why Mr X could not have complained to us sooner if he was unhappy about the Council’s view on the matter, so we will not start an investigation now.
7. And even if this time restriction did not apply, it is not the Ombudsman’s role to adjudicate in legal disputes about rights of way. So, an investigation is unlikely to achieve a worthwhile outcome for Mr X.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is reasonable to expect him to have contacted us sooner and, in any case, it would not achieve a worthwhile outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman