Summary: Ms B complains that the Council has failed to respond to her request for a disabled parking bay in a timely manner and, as a result she is at risk of harm when she cannot park outside her home. She also says the Council has allocated parking spaces to all the other residents in her road and she is the only one without this provision. The Ombudsman finds there was an excessive delay in the Council dealing with Ms B’s request. To remedy the injustice caused the Council has agreed to apologise to Ms B and pay her £200.

The complaint

1. Ms B complains that the Council has failed to respond to her request for a disabled parking bay in a timely manner and, as a result, she is at risk of harm when she cannot park outside her home. She also says that the Council has allocated parking spaces to all the other residents in her road who previously did not have allocated parking and she is now the only resident with allocated or off-road parking.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered all the information provided by Ms B, made enquiries of the Council and considered its comments and the documents it provided.
4. Ms B and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

5. Ms B is disabled and uses a wheelchair. She has a Blue Badge. In March 2019 she applied for a disabled parking bay outside her property. She does not have a drive or parking space within the boundary of her property and was finding it difficult to park near her home on a regular basis.
6. Ms B also contacted her local councillor for help and he contacted the Council’s traffic network management team. Officer X responded setting out the Council’s policy and criteria for dealing with requests for disabled parking bays. He explained that completion of the online form did not constitute a request for a disabled parking bay. The form must be printed off and endorsed by a doctor and then submitted together with proof of car ownership and a copy of the applicant’s Blue Badge. If the Council was satisfied this information met the initial criteria, it would carry out a site survey to determine whether it was possible to provide a disabled bay and whether the location met its criteria.
7. In May 2019 Ms B submitted the required information.
8. In July 2019 Ms B sent an email to Officer X stating that she had not heard anything about her application. Officer X responded apologising for the delay in dealing with her request and explained that this was because of organisational changes the Council had made.
9. In November 2019 Ms B complained about the delay. She said she was finding it increasingly difficult to park near her home and often had to walk an unsafe distance and had fallen and injured herself.
10. On 7 December 2019 Ms B contacted the Council again saying she was still waiting for a response.
11. Officer X responded on 9 December 2019. He said additional resources had been made available for a short period of time which had allowed a small number of site surveys to be carried out but the traffic network team did not currently enough staff members in place to process and deal with the disabled parking bay applications that had been submitted. He said there were about 100 active applications and, once resources had been put in place, they would deal with them in order of receipt. He explained that, because of the number of applications, it may take some time before Ms B’s application could be processed and apologised for this. He also explained that being the holder of a Blue Badge and having a vehicle registered to their address, did not automatically qualify an applicant for a disabled parking bay. Applications would only be approved where the applicant has met the criteria.
12. Ms B complained to the Ombudsman.

The Council’s process

13. The Council’s process for determining applications for disabled parking bays is that the applicant must complete a questionnaire which must be signed by their doctor. If the application meets the initial criteria, the Council will carry out a site survey to confirm whether the location meets the criteria and whether there is a suitable location to provide a bay. If this is the case, the Council will send consultation letters to affected neighbours and consider their comments before reaching a decision. If an application is accepted, an advisory marking will be implemented.
14. An application must meet the following criteria:
• the applicant must hold a Blue Badge;
• the location must be the applicant’s permanent address;
• the applicant must have a vehicle registered to that address;
• parking must be a problem within 25 metres of the property on a regular basis. This will be a matter of judgement for the director of technical services;
• there must be no off-street parking available associated with the property and not possible to provide a parking space within the curtilage of the applicant’s property;
• a suitable location must be available for a bay on the road, ideally directly outside the applicant’s address.
15. Disabled parking bay markings are advisory only. This means bays are available to all residents and no resident would have exclusive use of it.

Analysis

Failure to respond to Ms B’s request in a timely manner

16. The Council has explained that, in 2019 organisational changes meant the team could not process applications as quickly as before. This resulted in many applications waiting to be processed. In early 2020 the Council took on additional staff via a consultancy agency to work through the backlog. The Council intends to keep the staff in place to continue to process the applications. It says there are still 102 outstanding applications 13 of which were made before the Council received Ms B’s request.
17. The Council has now completed a survey at Ms B’s address and has decided to refuse her application. It considers it is possible for a parking space to be provided within the curtilage of her property so her application does not meet the Council’s criteria.
18. The Council must consider all applications for disabled parking bays against its criteria. I am satisfied it has done so in this case so there are no grounds to criticise its decision which is consistent with its policy.
19. However, I find the Council has taken an excessively long time to deal with Ms B’s application. This was fault and caused Ms B a significant injustice. She has suffered distress and uncertainty in not knowing whether her application would be granted. She was also put to time and trouble in chasing the Council for a response.

Allocation of parking spaces to other residents

20. Ms B says the Council has created off-road parking spaces for two properties that previously did not have off-road parking leaving her as the only resident in the road without off-road or allocated parking.
21. The Council has confirmed it has not allocated parking spaces to any resident in the road. It has no responsibility for the provision of off-road parking on private property which is the responsibility of the property owner.
22. The Council has also explained that the developer of a new housing development at the end of Ms B’s road created two hard standing spaces on the adopted highway. These are for use by any member of the public and have not been allocated to any specific resident. The work to provide these spaces was carried out by the developer and not the Council.
23. I find no fault by the Council in this regard.

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Agreed action

24. In addition to the apology already provided, the Council has agreed to pay Ms B £200 within one month in recognition of the frustration and uncertainty she suffered because of the delay in dealing with her application.

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Final decision

25. I find the Council was at fault in that it delayed excessively in dealing with Ms B’s request for a disabled parking bay.
26. I do not uphold the remainder of Ms B’s complaint.
27. I have completed my investigation on the basis that the Council has agreed to implement the recommended remedy.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman