London Borough of Merton (19 003 921)
Category : Transport and highways > Traffic management
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 07 Aug 2019
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint about a visitor parking permit. It is unlikely he would find fault by the Council had caused the complainant injustice that would warrant his involvement.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I refer to here as Mr X lives in a controlled parking zone (CPZ). He has complained about issues arising from the theft of his annual visitor parking permit. He says the Council wrongly told him it had cancelled the permit and did not properly deal with his complaint about this.
- Mr X says the Council should apologise to him for saying it had cancelled the permit and make the manager of the officer who dealt with his complaint aware of what happened.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 an investigation if, for example, we believe:
- it is unlikely we would find fault;
- the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained; or
- the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered what Mr X said in his complaint and background information provided by the Council. Mr X commented on a draft before I made this decision.
What I found
Background
- The Council has a scheme where residents of a CPZ can buy a permit that visitors can use.
Summary of events
- Mr X obtained a visitor permit from the Council which expired in January 2018. He says the Council told him it would cancel the permit after it was stolen but he does not believe it did this. Mr X also says an officer lied to him about how the Council was dealing with his complaint.
Final decision
- I have decided we will not investigate this complaint because we are unlikely to find fault by the Council has caused Mr X some significant personal injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman