Summary: The complaint is about on-street parking affecting users of a private car park. The Ombudsman will not pursue this complaint because the matter complained of does not cause a significant enough injustice.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that the Council has not dealt properly with reports of on-street parking affecting users of a private car park. Mr X says this results in him and others having an inadequate view of the road when leaving the private car park.

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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 must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information Mr X provided and discussed the complaint with him. I also considered copy complaint correspondence from the Council and online photographs of the relevant area. I gave Mr X the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

4. Mr X, his colleagues and other office tenants work in an office building that has its own private car park. The Council installed on-street parking bays near the access to the private car park. Mr X says this restricts visibility of drivers leaving the private car park, causing them to have to edge out and risking a collision if they and a car driving on the road do not see each other in time because of the parked cars. Mr X says there have been some near misses. A user of the car park told the Council that, when a vehicle is parked at the nearest end of the on-street parking spaces, drivers exiting the car park have a view of ten metres.
5. As paragraph 2 explained, we do not necessarily investigate every complaint. I have considered whether the matter complained of disadvantages Mr X or others significantly enough to justify the Ombudsman investigating.
6. I appreciate the on-street parking requires drivers to pull out more slowly and cautiously than if they had a longer view. However, I note the on-street parking area stops short of the car park entrance and there is a visibility splay. Users of the private car park might not have as much visibility as they would like or as some other locations might have. However, the minimum ten metres of visibility that is apparently available seems in line with the Highway Code, which advises against parking within ten metres of a junction. I appreciate drivers leaving the car park might consider the situation risky but there are various factors contributing to such risk (including the behaviour of motorists on the road and leaving the car park), not just the on-street parking. I am also mindful that the Council need not change public highway parking arrangements to satisfy a private interest.
7. Overall, I do not consider the difficulties driving out of the car park amount to a significant enough injustice to warrant the Ombudsman devoting time and public money to an investigation.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the parking spaces do not cause a significant enough injustice to warrant investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman