Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about parking because we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take.

The complaint

1. Mrs Y complained the Council failed to provide a parking waiver for her mother’s funeral, this led to her having to spend money to pay for family and friends to park on her road during her mother’s last hours and funeral. Mrs Y says this has caused her significant upset.

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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. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)
3. 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, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information Mrs Y provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Before Mrs Y’s mother died, she requested a funeral parking waiver from the Council. The Council denied her request as it explained the funeral parking waiver was for funerals and not for those receiving palliative care. In the hours after her mother’s death, Mrs Y contacted the Council, initially with an application for a parking waiver but without details for Mrs Y so the Council were unable to respond, secondly with an email in which Mrs Y did not provide an address for the property and then by phone where Mrs Y spoke to a person who had recently joined the Council’s staff, during which the call dropped suddenly.
6. The Council’s complaint response explained that this led to some confusion in handling the application but said that the email inbox assigned for this contact tells the person emailing, here Mrs Y, that that it can take its team up to 15 days to respond. The Council did however acknowledge that it could improve its customer service if it had called Mrs Y back after the call dropped but denied fault. It also confirmed that Mrs Y had not properly received the confirmation that the road outside her mother’s property was exempt from parking enforcement for that day. It apologised the inconvenience and upset caused and refunded the costs for visitor permits to Mrs Y’s account that day, which from its records showed a cost to Mrs Y of £3.60. Mrs Y then approached us.
7. As the Council has properly considered and investigated the complaint and its impact, it is unlikely the Ombudsman would be able to add to the original investigation. It has both recognised and apologised for the emotional impact and refunded the money it has evidence to show Mrs Y spent on parking on her parking account. This is a proportionate and appropriate remedy for the injustice caused and we are satisfied with the steps the Council therefore has proposed to remedy the complaint. Any further funds Mrs Y spent elsewhere on visitor parking, she says approximately £50, would not be significant enough to justify use of public funds to investigate her complaint. Consequently, it is unlikely further consideration of this complaint would lead to a different outcome. We will not investigate.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mrs Y’s complaint because we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman