Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council (24 005 067)
Category : Transport and highways > Traffic management
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 16 Sep 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to transport and highway safety concerns raised by Mr X. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. There is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Mr X to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about the Council’s failure to acknowledge or act upon significant highway and transport safety concerns he raised with it. He says the Council has been unhelpful, uncooperative, evasive and deeply unprofessional and that remedial actions have not been undertaken, despite assurances indicating they were necessary.
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:
- there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
- any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
- 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))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council, including its response to the complaint.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Mr X to warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman