Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about plans to install a bus lane. We are unlikely to find fault with the Council, and only the courts can decide whether the Council has breached the Equality Act.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains on behalf of Mr Y, her employee. Mrs X complains about the Council’s plans to install a bus lane outside her shop, and the Council’s refusal to install a loading bay there instead. Mrs X says the decision will prevent Mr Y from unloading goods as his medical condition prevents him from using a loading bay further away. Mrs X says the Council has breached the Equality Act 2010. Mrs X wants the Council to install a loading bay by the shop.

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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 or there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, 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. We will not investigate this complaint. The Council’s decision to install the bus lane is part of a wider transport scheme. The Council has considered health and equalities impacts as part the scheme’s planning. The Council does not have a duty to make changes to its bus lane plans to accommodate an individual’s specific disability, so we are unlikely to find fault with the Council for not doing so.
6. 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 an organisation 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 you disagree with the decision the organisation made.
7. Only the courts can decide if an organisation has breached the Equality Act. We cannot. I see no reason, in this case, why it would be unreasonable to expect Mrs X to take court action if she wants a definitive ruling on this point.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint because we are unlikely to find fault with the Council, and only the courts can decide whether the Council has breached the Equality Act.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman