Ashford Borough Council (26 002 033)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 20 Jul 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the information the Council provided on visitor parking permits. The complainant has not suffered a significant personal injustice from the alleged fault.
The complaint
- Mr X complained the Council wrongly told him to apply for virtual visitor parking permits when it still offers paper visitor parking permits. He also complained the first person appointed to investigate his complaint was not independent.
- He says this has caused him time and frustration of repeatedly having to contact the Council and attend the Council offices in person.
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 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:
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
- we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
- there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- I appreciate that Mr X experienced frustration in getting the correct information that paper permits were still available. However, we will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. The Council has admitted it provided wrong information and apologised to Mr X. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. The injustice caused to Mr X is not significant enough to warrant further investigation.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he has not suffered a significant personal injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman