Summary: Mr X complained about the Council’s failure to carry out parking enforcement promptly on his street. The Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains about the Council’s failure to serve parking penalties on cars in breach of the parking regulations on his street. He wants the Council to respond promptly in future to his requests for parking enforcement.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered all the information which Mr X submitted with his complaint and he has commented on the draft decision.

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What I found

4. Mr X lives on a street with a single yellow line parking restriction between certain hours. He says cars have parked on the street for several days in the past and he reported them to the Council in 2018 and early 2019. He says the Council did not send enforcement officers until after the cars had been removed by their owners.
5. Mr X complained to the Council on both occasions. He says as a council tax payer the Council should offer a service which responds to his reports about parking infringements.
6. Councils have powers to issue parking penalties when their officers encounter vehicles parked in breach of the regulations. This does not have to be a responsive service to individual requests. Normally parking enforcement is carried out on an area patrol basis and is for the council itself to decide how to deploy its limited resources. Vehicles causing obstruction are the responsibility of the Police. The Council says it has carried out enforcement on the street in the past but it must carry out enforcement in other parts of the borough.
7. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault on the Council’s part which would warrant an investigation.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman