local authority problems

[Anonymous]

How do you get a local authority to uphold their responsibility? Adjoining council owned land has slipped and is putting pressure against the wall of my cottage and causing it to bow and get damp. When a council surveyor came round to look they alleged it's not their responsility because it's not soil but old rubbish. So I asked them to clear the rubbish and their reply was it's too expensive and because the wall is bowing they are worried about health and safety! Has anyone experience of this sort of thing and what action I could take? I considered taking the local authority to court but none of the local solicitors seem that interested to act on my behalf - could I do it myself and if so how? Any advice would be appreciated - thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

Ah - today I've been having just such a conversation with a parish councillor regarding land surrounding us - a registered village green which it is the responsiblityof the Parish Council to maintain. It's a mass of weeds brambles and felled trees... there are powers I can use as a local inhabitant to take this matter to a magistrate but that I think may be expensive.

Trying to get any local authority to do its duty is difficult!

However, it has a duty, and it should be brought to book if it doesn't act reasonably and responsibly. Too many who work for local authorities tend to be jobsworths who seem to go out of their way to be unhelpful in my experience!

The local authority should be keeping the land in a decent state - if it was private land it would be able to (and I'm sure much more keen) serve a notice on the owner to tidy it...

It could be worth contacting your insurance company for starters and see if you have legal help cover. If your property is being damaged by something which the owner of the adjacent land is wilfully allowing to happen then a claim could be brought to rectify the damage - and your insurers should pursue the council for the cash!

First though I would write once again to the Chief Executive of the council, setting out your problems with the local authority. Explain that this matter is damaging to your property and affecting the amenity of the area. State that this is a formal complaint. State what has happened so far and that you are not happy with the way the matter is being dealt with. State what you wish to see happen.

Then say that unless your complaint is appropriately dealt with you will make a complaint to the Ombudsman. Keep records and copies of all conversations and letters.

In the meanwhile, try to seek an interview with your local councillor for the district, and tell him or her of your problem. Take some photographs to the meeting, ask for a site visit. Getting a councillor on your side can help hugely - it seems to concentrate minds wonderfully...

Give 'em hell in fact. You pay enough in council tax!

 

[Anonymous]

Just a PS to Evelyn's excellent advice. Don't forget the local media. You shouldn't resort to this kind of pressure too early, because it might just put the local authority's backs up, but if you run out of other options, try giving your story to the local paper, radio station and TV station.

 

[Anonymous]

I've been thinking again about this - and obviously there is damage which requires rectifying and which is the fault of someone else. So I do think that the house insurers need to be involved. That may take a long time to resolve between the insurers and the local authority, but let them fight it out! Also in order to have a claim for legal help there is a time limit and any action should not be begun before such help is sought.

In the meanwhile of course the wall needs stabilising.

The local authority of course will try all ways to avoid claiming responsibility... if they can put people off at the first hurdle they will.