Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council consulted on changes to parking restrictions. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the way the Council consulted on possible changes to the parking restrictions in her area.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We can 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. So, we do not start an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. In that regard, our role is not to ask whether an organisation could have done things better, or whether we agree or disagree with what it did. Instead, we look at whether there was fault in how it made its decisions. If we decide there was no fault in how it did so, we cannot ask whether it should have made a particular decision or say it should have reached a different outcome. Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council, which included clarification on how the consultation results were interpreted.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Council has explained the primary/key question in the consultation asked people to indicate their preference for one of three parking restriction options. The other questions were supplementary to this, and did not impact the result of the first question. Rather, the supplementary questions were intended to allow people to still have some input into the parking time restrictions for all the options, even if it was not the person’s preferred option.
7. The Council has also explained that whilst there was no clear support for any of the options across the wider parking zone, there was strong support for one of the options in a particular section of the zone. It has therefore decided to implement changes to the parking restrictions in that section. This was a decision the Council was entitled to reach, even if Ms X disagrees with it.
8. It is not our role to overrule or tell the Council how to operate its services. I find there is not enough evidence of fault in the way the Council has interpreted the results or decided to proceed with a particular option, to justify starting an investigation.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman