Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to remove a disabled parking bay from outside Miss X’s home. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s failure to remove a disabled parking bay from outside her home which she says she has been asking the Council to implement for nine years. She says she has been asking to install a vehicle crossing to her home since 2019 but the Council will not remove the bay which obstructs her proposals.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Miss X says she wants to construct a vehicle crossing and driveway at her home but there is a disabled parking bay outside which was requested by the previous owner. She says she has spent nine years asking the Council to remove the bay because she does not need it. In 2019 she asked the Council to do this so that she could construct a vehicle crossing and in 2022 the Council wrote to residents to assess the views in the neighbourhood about possible removal of the bay. It has not taken further action since then.
6. The Council says the bay is a mandatory one which is in place as part of a traffic regulation order. It would take a legal procedure under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to modify the order and there is no duty on a highway authority to change an order. The Council could simply reject Mis X’s request to remove the bay and there is no appeal against matters concerning infrastructure within the highway boundary.
7. We will not investigate this complaint because it relates to matters which the complainant was aware of more than 12 months before they brought it to our attention. I have seen no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner.
8. The time for receiving complaints is from when someone became aware of the matter they wished to complain about, not when they complained to the Council or it issued its final response. We would expect someone to complain to us within a year, even if they were dissatisfied with the time the complaints procedure was taking.

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Final decision

9. We will not exercise discretion to investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to remove a disabled parking bay from outside Miss X’s home. This complaint was received outside the normal 12-month period for investigating complaints. There is no evidence to suggest that Miss X could not have complained to us sooner.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman