Summary: Mrs X complained about the Council’s refusal of her application for a dropped kerb and discretionary H-bar marking outside her home. We should not investigate this complaint. This is because it concerns a complaint about matters which the complainant was aware of outside the normal 12-month period for accepting complaints.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the Council rejecting her request for a dropped kerb and H-bar marking to improve parking access to her home. She requires assistance from relatives due to her age and parking nearby is often limited by other vehicles. She applied for the works in 2019 and again in 2020 but the Council told her that her property does not meet the criteria for a driveway.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered all the information which Mrs X submitted with her complaint. I have also considered the Council’s response.

Back to top

What I found

5. Mrs X applied for a dropped kerb and discretionary H-bar marking on the road in May 2019. The Council rejected her application because the property does not meet the criteria for space within the frontage. Mrs X says there are existing driveways in similar properties in her street. The Council told her that these were constructed in the past, prior to the current policy.
6. Mrs X applied to the Council again in 2020 but this was refused for the same reasons.
7. We do not normally investigate complaints about matters which the complainant was aware of more than 12 months before they complained to us. This applies to Mrs X’s complaint because the Council advised her to complain to us in September 2019 when her first application was rejected. The policy remains the same and her second application was rejected because of this. We will not exercise discretion to investigate now because there is no evidence of fault in the process.

Back to top

Final decision

8. We should not investigate this complaint. This is because it concerns a complaint about matters which the complainant was aware of outside the normal 12-month period for accepting complaints.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman