Councils agree to take action over uncompleted road after LGO investigation

A county council and a district council have agreed to take action over an uncompleted road on a new housing estate, following an investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman.

Residents of the estate had complained to the LGO, claiming that Teignbridge District Council and Devon County Council had failed to ensure completion and adoption of the road serving their homes.

Construction of the road has not been completed, presenting problems in particular for those residents looking to sell their properties.

The Ombudsman, Dr Jane Martin, only partially upheld the complaints.

She found that Teignbridge had been guilty of maladministration for failing to notify Devon when it issued buildings regulations approval for the new houses. This meant that the county council was not put on notice of the development.

But she cleared the district council in relation to its handling of the planning enforcement investigation on the planning condition requiring completion of the highways works.

The LGO also found that Devon was not at fault in dealing with the developer about the highway works to be carried out.

Dr Martin said the county council took reasonable steps to secure the completion of a s. 38 agreement with the developer and that it was not able to force the developer, which went into liquidation, to complete the agreement.

However, the two councils have now agreed to work together with the residents to secure completion of the necessary works and adoption of the road.

Dr Martin said: “The relevant legislation does not provide for highways authorities to meet the costs of constructing and adopting roads serving new housing developments. The complainant and other purchasers were aware when they bought their homes that the roads had not been adopted and there was no agreement in place ensuring that this would be done. I have found no evidence of maladministration by the county council and the fault by the district council was limited.”

The Ombudsman said that, in these circumstances, she could not recommend that Devon meet the costs of the necessary works. Dr Martin also did not consider it appropriate to recommend that Teignbridge do so.

“I am very pleased, however, that as a result of our investigation both councils have agreed to work together with the residents to remedy the problem,” she said, adding that this provided a satisfactory settlement of the complaint.