Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about changes the Council has made over several years to access to and car parking in Leeds City Centre. This is because the complaint does not focus on claimed fault in specific decisions taken by the Council and the Council’s response sets out how it considered the impact of its changes on disabled people. It is unlikely we could add to the Council’s response or achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mrs X.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains the Council has failed to consider the impact on disabled people of its approach to making the city “a city where you don’t need a car”. Mrs X says a large proportion of disabled people cannot use public transport and have been negatively affected by physical and policy changes the Council has made over several years.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X’s complaint concerns changes the Council has made to achieving its goal of reducing the need for private vehicles in the city centre. The complaint does not focus on any particular decisions, instead claiming the wider policy approach is flawed as it does not properly account for the needs of disabled people. This approach goes back to at least 2019 and Mrs X says that as a result of the changes the Council made she has been unable to go into the city centre for several years.
7. The Council has responded to Mrs X’s complaint by setting out some of the consultations it undertook in making its decisions, which included various groups and organisations concerned with the rights and needs of disabled people. It says it has been making changes since 2019 following consultation between 2017 and 2021 and has considered the needs of disabled people. But Mrs X is unhappy with some of the changes and believes the Council should be more closely monitoring their impact.
8. Any complaint about the Council’s actions which Mrs X has been aware of for more than 12 months is late. It is also unlikely we could add to the Council’s response to Mrs X’s complaint as it is not our role to conduct an audit of every decision it has taken relating to driving/parking in the city centre, whether over the past 12 months or since the Council started to make changes in 2019.
9. The Council is entitled to make changes and does not have to follow suggestions made by members of the public. We cannot decide if it has discriminated against Mrs X or other disabled people as only the courts can make this decision. We can only look at whether the Council considered the impact of its decisions and its response suggests it did. If however Mrs X believes it has taken specific decisions without properly considering their impact on disabled people Mrs X may detail her concerns about these decisions with the Council and, once it has exhausted the Council’s complaints procedure, she may ask us to decide whether we can and should investigate further.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot carry out a general review of the Council’s decisions since 2019 or, therefore, achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mrs X be investigating this matter further. We must focus on allegations of fault relating to specific decisions and it is unlikely we could add to the Council’s response to this complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman