Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a decrease in the number of parking enforcement officers patrolling the roads near a football stadium on match days. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions.

The complaint

1. The complainant, I shall call Mr X, lives near a football stadium. He complains the Council has lessened the number of parking enforcement officers available to patrol the roads on match days.
2. Mr X says the decrease in enforcement officers means residents who must pay for visitor parking permits, are suffering because on match days cars block entrances to homes and pedestrian accesses. And there is less on-street parking available in the area.
3. Mr X wants the Council to increase the number of enforcement officer patrolling the area on match days. Alternatively, it should abandon all parking enforcement on match days.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The Council confirms that Mr X raised concerns about the number of parking enforcement officers available on a specific match day. It says on the day in question it assigned 22% of the available officers to patrol roads near the stadium.
8. It also confirmed there are no definite number of parking enforcement officers required for the area as a condition of the planning permission for the stadium.
9. The Ombudsman’s role is mainly to look at the way the Council carries out its administrative functions. We do not look at the way it chooses to deploy its staff or its spending priorities.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s actions.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman