City of York Council (24 015 547)
Category : Transport and highways > Traffic management
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 21 Feb 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment before installing speed bumps in the road where the complainant lives. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s actions.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council failed to conduct an environmental impact assessment (EIR) before installing traffic calming speed humps in the road where he lives.
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 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 Mr X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Guidance produced by the Government on introducing traffic calming says
“Where it is expected there will be a significant impact on any of these factors (air quality etc) a more in-depth analysis should be undertaken, and the predicted negative impacts weighed against predicted benefits.”
- However this is guidance only and does not state the Council must conduct an EIA. In this case the Council did not conduct an EIA.
- I understand Mr X is unhappy with the way the Council installed rubber speed bumps and says this causes noise and air pollution. He also says most residents in his road want the speed bumps removed. However, we have previously considered this matter and issued a decision. We will not revisit this matter. Also, we do not have written consent from anyone else for Mr X to complain to us on their behalf. It is open to others to make their own complaints if they wish to do so.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision not to conduct an EIA before introducing traffic calming in the road where Mr X lives.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman