The complaint
The complainant, to whom I refer here as Mr Z, says that in 2014 by placing bollards in front of his property, the Council blocked access to his driveway. Mr Z considers this is unfair as he says the Council has failed to apply its policy uniformly to all the residents in the locality.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr Z.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council introduced the parking restrictions measures which Mr Z is raising with us over 7 years ago. Mr Z complained about this issue in December 2015, in November 2016, in April 2017 and in December 2021. Email communication to the Council sent in November 2016 included Mr Z’s notification that the failure in dealing with his complaint would result in escalating the matter to the Ombudsman.
In his comments to the draft decision Mr Z says that following his initial complaint in 2015, the Council agreed to remove the bollards. This has never happened despite his continuous communications with the Council, therefore his complaint should not be considered late.
The evidence available to us suggests that after the exchange of email communications in April 2017, Mr Z contacted the Council again regarding removal of the bollards in December 2021.
The longer that has passed since an event, the more difficult it becomes for us to carry out a fair investigation or to make recommendations that are meaningful.
As the event complained about happened in 2014, Mr Z has known about our services at least since November 2016 and there was a long break in communication with the Council regarding this matter between April 2017 and December 2021 I do not consider that there are any good reasons to exercise our discretion and consider this late complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr Z’s complaint because it is late and there is no good reason to exercise discretion to consider this late complaint.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman