Devon County Council (25 007 657)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 28 Sep 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to issue him a Residents Parking Permit. The complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and there are no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now.
The complaint
- Mr X complains, via a representative, about the Council’s decision not to issue him a Residents Parking Permit. Mr X says the Council has discretion to issue him one but has not considered this.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X first complained to the Council in 2022 about its decision his property was not eligible for a Residents Parking Permit.
- The Council’s 2022 complaint response clearly signposted Mr X to this office if he remained dissatisfied with its final response. It also further signposted Mr X to this office in 2023 and again in 2024 after Mr X submitted further complaints.
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. It 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 this matter since 2022. He could have raised the complaint to us much sooner. This right to escalation was clearly set out in the Council’s 2022 response and I see no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider this very late complaint now so long after he first became aware of the matter and three years after he was signposted to us.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. It lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and there are no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider it now.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman