Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of disabled parking provision at an event. This is because there is not enough evidence of the Council causing significant injustice and it is reasonable for the complainant to make a claim to the court, so the matter does not justify us investigating.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council did not provide sufficient disabled parking for an event in a Council-owned park. She says the lack of parking spaces meant she had to park further from the event which caused her difficulty and pain.
2. Miss X also complains about how the Council handled her complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.

We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Miss X attended an event in summer 2025. She has a disability and says she was unable to use the disabled parking spaces as they were full. She says there was space within the gates of the event to park but she was directed to park further away. She says the walk from the car park to the event caused her pain and was difficult.
8. The Council says although it owns the park where the event was taking place, parking for visitors was the responsibility of the privately-run event company.
9. Miss X says the Council has not given regard to the Equality Act 2010 by failing to provide adequate disabled parking spaces for the event. We have no power to decide if a council has discriminated against someone. It would be reasonable for Miss X to make a discrimination claim in court.
10. While I understand Miss X feels strongly about the matter, we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by the Council rather than another organisation. As a publicly funded body we must be careful how we use our resources. Therefore, we will not investigate this complaint.
11. Miss X complains about the Council’s handling of his complaint. We do not investigate how a Council has handled a complaint if we are not investigating the subject of the complaint. That is the case here.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of the Council causing her significant injustice and it is reasonable for Miss X to make a claim to the court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman