Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council responded to complaints of obstructive parking as the complaint is made late and there are not good reasons to investigate now.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council took no action in response to his complaints that his neighbour’s parking blocked his driveway for around a year and a half. Mr X is unhappy as when he parked across his neighbour’s driveway, the Council issued him with a penalty charge notice (PCN). Mr X wants the Council to install double yellow lines across his driveway, to apologise for the way it handled his case and for officers within the parking department to be sacked.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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 or continue an investigation if we decide we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal or a government minister or started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Mr X complains the Council took no action when he reported to it that his neighbour’s parking was blocking his driveway. Mr X refers to several incidents in 2023 relating to this. As Mr X did not complain to us until February 2025, his complaint is made late as not within 12 months of him knowing about the problem. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to have complained to us about these matters at the time and as such there are not good reasons to investigate now.
8. Mr X was issued with a PCN within the last 12 months, but we cannot look into this, as since Mr X appealed it to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, this matter is no longer within our legal limit.
9. We cannot ask the Council to install specific parking restrictions and we can have no involvement in internal discipline matters at the Council.
10. For these reasons we will not investigate.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is made late, and we cannot achieve the outcome he seeks.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman