Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to properly enforce parking restrictions. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council does not properly police parking restrictions in his area. He has reported motorists parking on double yellow lines and overstaying past the two-hour time limit but by the time the Council sends a civil enforcement officer (CEO) to investigate the vehicles have gone. Mr X believes the Council should increase its response rate and attend reports of parking contraventions within two hours of the report being made.

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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 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Mr X is unhappy because he pays for a parking permit and follows the rules and he believes the Council is letting other people get away with not doing the same. But the permit doesn’t guarantee anyone committing a contravention will be penalised for it; rather, it allows those who have one to park without fear of receiving a fine.
6. There is no requirement for the Council to attend reports about parking issues within any set period of time or to issue fines to every motorist who parks on double yellow lines or stays longer than allowed. We could not therefore say the Council is at fault for failing to do so.
7. The Council has explained to Mr X that its CEOs have visited his road on 74 occasions and issued 24 penalty charge notices and this shows it is monitoring compliance with the restrictions and issuing fines where appropriate.
8. It is not for us to tell the Council it must employ more CEOs or allocate additional resources to parking enforcement and it is highly likely that in order to meet Mr X’s expectations it would require considerably more funding. This would then likely result in significant increases to the cost of permits for Mr X and the other motorists who choose to buy one.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman