The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to refuse an application for a disabled parking bay. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I refer to as Mrs X, disagrees with the Councill’s decision to refuse her application for a disabled parking bay.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates 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 an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council. This includes the complaint correspondence and a complaint Mrs X has made to us about a vehicle crossover. I also considered our Assessment Code and invited Mrs X to comment on a draft of this decision.
My assessment
The Council can approve a disabled parking bay if the applicant has a Blue Badge and no existing off-street parking. If the Council approves a bay it will normally be placed within 20 metres of the applicant’s home and can be used by any Blue Badge holder.
The Council approved a disabled parking bay application for Mrs X in 2019. Mrs X was living at no.29. Mrs X now lives at no.20. The Council says the bay is within 20 metres of her home.
Mrs X applied for a dropped kerb for off-street parking for her current home. This was approved in 2021. Mrs X says the dropped kerb has not been properly constructed. We are investigating Mrs X’s complaint about the dropped kerb. We have not yet made a decision in relation to that complaint.
Mrs X applied for another disabled parking bay. The Council declined the application because she has off-road parking and it has already installed a parking bay. The Council also said that her Blue Badge is registered to her old address and there is no badge registered to the current address.
Mrs X disagrees with the decision to refuse the bay because she does not have off-road parking due to the inadequacies of the dropped kerb.
I will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. The Council has already installed a disabled bay which is a short distance from Mrs X’s home. In addition, Mrs X has a dropped kerb which gives access to off-street parking. Mrs X says the dropped kerb in inadequate. But, the outcome of the complaint about that will either be that the crossover is satisfactory or, if we find fault, we may ask the Council to provide a remedy. If that is not possible, Mrs X could submit a new application and explain there is a problem with the dropped kerb which means she does not have access to off-street parking. However, the Council might still refuse the application because of the existing disabled parking bay.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman