Birmingham City Council (24 011 761)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 16 Dec 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a lack of parking in his local area. The complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider it now.
The complaint
- The complainant, Mr X complains about a lack of parking close to his home. Mr X says most properties on his road have access to off street or allocated parking, but his property is one of the few that does not. The road has double yellow lines and Mr X says he has received £100s in fines for parking on them in front of his property over the years.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X’s complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late. The law says a complaint should be made to us within 12 months of the person affected first becoming aware of the matter. Mr X has been aware of the issue for years. He says he has received numerous fines for parking on the double yellow lines on his road over the years due to the lack of parking available. I see no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider this very late complaint now.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it lies outside our jurisdiction and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion to consider it now.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman