Decision Report 201701410

Summary

Mr C complained that the council failed to adopt definitive criteria for cleaning roads that have been fouled by farmers and farmworkers and their activities, and about the council's handling of his complaint.

We found that the council were not required to adopt the definitive criteria Mr C wanted. The council already had in place a Road Inspection Guide, which was informed by relevant legislation and national standards, and provided a framework for the inspection of roads, including reactive safety inspections initiated by reports from the public. We also found that the council took Mr C's complaint seriously, made appropriate enquiries, came to a reasonable conclusion, and suggested a remedy for a failing that they identified. We did not uphold Mr C's complaints.

However, we found that council officers did not make records of inspections in response to Mr C's reports of mud on the road. It also appeared that the council may not have provided advice to their technical staff on how such situations would be managed across the council area, which they told Mr C that they would do. Therefore, we made a recommendation to address these points.

Recommendations

What we said should change to put things right in future:

• Remind council officers of what the Road Inspection Guide says about recording all reactive safety inspections.

We have asked the organisation to provide us with evidence that they have implemented the recommendations we have made on this case by the deadline we set.