Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to refuse his application for a disabled parking bay. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council or to show its decision caused significant injustice.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council refused his request for a disabled parking bay outside his mother’s house. He says his mother is disabled and vulnerable and the waiting area outside her house is always in use.

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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 Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. We are not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong.
5. The Council has explained the reasons it refused Mr X’s application and its decision is in-line with its policy. I have seen no evidence of fault in the way the decision was reached and we cannot therefore question it.
6. It is in any event unlikely we could say the decision caused Mr X or his mother significant injustice. This is because Mr X says the current waiting area outside the property is always in-use by people displaying blue badges.
7. Disabled parking bays are not restricted to use by only one person; anyone with a blue badge may use them. It is therefore unlikely, even if the Council did agree to install a new disabled parking bay, that it would change the situation as the same motorists could park in the bay as use the current waiting area. So there is no guarantee the bay would be free when Mr X’s mother needed it and this is no different to the current situation.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council or to show its decision caused Mr X or his mother significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman