The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about parking issues affecting her company’s car park access. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s approach to the issue, or to show its actions caused the company significant injustice. Any complaint about the removal of parking spaces in 2020 is also late.
The complaint
The complainant, Ms X, complains about vehicles obstructing her company’s office car park. She says the issue seems to be a consequence of the Council removing parking spaces at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Council failing to enforce parking restrictions.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended) 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 Ms X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We will not investigate Ms X’s concerns about the Council’s removal of parking spaces in early 2020. This is because the complaint is late and it is unlikely we could say the decision at the time amounted to fault or caused Ms X’s company injustice.
There is no duty on the Council to enforce parking restrictions or to issue penalty charge notices (PCNs) to all motorists who fail to observe the restrictions. The Council confirms that its contractor attends the area regularly and issues PCNs where appropriate and this shows it has taken action to enforce the restrictions.
Due to the position of the company’s car park access is easily obstructed and the office is located in an area with several other businesses requiring frequent deliveries. The problem Ms X describes is not a new issue and it is primarily a feature of the layout of the road and other buildings around it, rather than any fault by the Council.
The Council’s contractors cannot be present at all times but it has provided a telephone number for the contractors’ ‘rapid response' team, which aims to attend in less than an hour during normal working hours. While Ms X considers this inadequate we could not say further enforcement would achieve anything more. Vehicles may park on double yellow lines to load and unload and blue badge holders may park on them for up to three hours. It is also not necessarily the case that carrying out more patrols or issuing more PCNs would resolve the issue.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence to show fault by the Council or to show any fault caused Ms X’s company significant injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman