Vale
Royal Borough Council, Cheshire County Council and the Local Government
Ombudsman
Our response to the Ombudsman's draft
report, 1st April 2008
Rather than crystalise and concentrate on the key issue, your draft
report does nothing more than drown it in 30 pages of obfuscation. In
addition, it still contains most of the errors that we have brought to
your attention over the last few years as well as many new ones.
For example:
-
The Highway Authority is responsible for the problem because it was
entirely of their own making. They failed to take action against the
developer in 1991 when we initially brought the matter to their
attention. They should have enforced the terms of the Section 38
agreement whilst the developer was still constructing and selling
properties, but in any event no later than 1994 when the road should
have been completed to adoptable standards. They allowed the developer
to continue to sell assets long after they were in breach of the
Section 38 Agreement.
Because of these and many other problems we have little or no
confidence in your office correcting them at this late stage. One
would have thought that after all these years you would at least have
got the basic facts right. As a result we don t see the point in
wasting any more of our time and effort trying to bring all the errors
in your draft report to your attention, if they are once again going
to fall on deaf ears.
However, we will make one last attempt to show you how the matter
could have been clarified in less than 1 page.
Our property is 150 years old and has had
right of way access to a highway ever since it was built. If a Highway
Authority is having difficulty bringing an unadopted part of the
highway, which we have a right of way over, up to adoptable standards
then that is clearly a problem for them to resolve. It is ludicrous
for anybody to suggest that we should allow the Highway Authorities to
shuffle their self created difficulties onto us. Particularly since we
warned them of this eventuality 17 years ago. During 2001 the Highway
Authority planned some works which we argued (i) they had no statutory
authority to carry out. And (ii) would interfere with our right of
way. We asked the Highway Authority on numerous occasions, well before
they attempted to implement the works, for further information about
the planned scheme and the specific statutory authority they relied on
to carry out the works. The Highway Authority refused to, and still
refuse to give us, that information, thereby denying us the right to
challenge them. That is an unequivocal interference with our legal and
Human Rights by any stretch of the imagination. We find it
inconceivable that a Local Government Ombudsman does not appear to
understand this. A public authority cannot, and should not, deny
information to an interested party in an attempt to stop them
challenging the legality of their plans. If they do it s called
maladministration! As a result, everything the Highway Authority
did, following their failure to provide the information necessary for
us to effectively challenge the legality of their scheme (or their
authority) must have been further acts of maladministration. Not only
do we have a right to the information we requested, it is also clear
the works cannot proceed until it is provided. The only reason for the
delay over the last 7 years is because the County Council have
refused, and are still refusing, to give us the information.
Everything else in your draft report hides that simple truth.
There was no need, nor do you have the authority, to determine any of
the legal or human rights issues involved. Therefore, why have you
wasted the last two years attempting to do just that and why does your
report concentrate on those issues rather than the initial and further
acts of maladministration? For far too long we have put our faith in
an alternative system of justice that doesn t appear to exist.
Therefore, we are keen to revert back to the more traditional legal
route, in which the rules of fair play and natural justice are still
embodied and practiced in a transparent, open and honest way.
We will reserve any further comments until after we receive the
promised communication from Cheshire County Council.
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