Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about parking and neighbour issues. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council will not take steps to help with the parking situation near his home. He also says he is intimidated and harassed by his neighbours.

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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 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 an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council. This includes the complaint correspondence. I also considered our Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. Mr X asked the Council to install a disabled parking bay at the rear of his property or write the word ‘disabled’ near his back gate. Mr X says he may be restricted in using his back gate due to parked cars and is concerned the waste collection crew will not be able to use the back gate to complete his assisted collection.
5. Mr X reported neighbour problems to the Council. He also said a Council officer had stared at him and parked outside his house.
6. The Council explained there is not enough space at the back of his property to install a disabled bay. It offered to explore a disabled bay at the front but Mr X declined this offer. The Council explained it could not write ‘disabled’ on the road because it is not an authorised road marking and would not be enforceable. The Council said his property is on the waiting list for yellow lines but because it is a low priority area (due to a lack of collisions) there could be a very long wait.
7. The Council checked and established there have been very few missed waste collections and nothing to suggest there is a problem with completing them.
8. The Council spoke and wrote to Mr X about the neighbour issues. It invited him to complete a nuisance sheet but Mr X returned it uncompleted because the Council had not used his correct name when it wrote to him. The Council responded to Mr X’s report of the officer parking outside his home.
9. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. It responded to Mr X’s concerns and explained why it cannot agree to the parking measures he requested. It did, however, offer an alternative and explained it can install yellow lines but not for a long time. I have not seen any suggestion of fault by the Council and there is no reason to start an investigation.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman