Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about parking bay allocations because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about how the Council handles parking bay allocations near his home. He says there are empty spaces and the Council should allocate one to him. He also complains about complaint handling.

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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 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Mr X complained there were empty parking bays in the parking area outside his home. He said he is on the waiting list for a space, and the Council should allocate one of the empty spaces to him. He said the Council should carry out a physical audit of the spaces.
6. The Council said it was aware of the spaces Mr X referred to and had made offers to other residents based on the criteria set out in its allocation policy. It says it prioritises disabled residents and does regular estate inspections.
7. The Ombudsman is 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 a Council followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether Mr X disagrees with the decision the Council made.
8. Mr X also complained about the Council’s complaint handling. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman