The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a Council owned vehicle being parked on the road where he lives. This is because the matter has not caused Mr X any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to merit an investigation.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains a Council owned vehicle is usually parked on the road where he lives yet the driver does not live on his road.
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 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 or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X complained to the Council about a Council owned vehicle being parked on the road where he lives. The driver of the vehicle works for the Council and lives nearby, although not on the same road. Mr X said the vehicle is parked on his road the majority of the time, apart from the 40 hours per week that the driver of the vehicle is working.
In response to Mr X’s complaint, the Council explained the vehicle is legally parked and as such is entitled to park there.
Whilst I acknowledge Mr X does not want this vehicle to park on the road where he lives, there is no significant personal injustice caused to him which is serious enough to merit an investigation by this office. We do not investigate every complaint we receive. We must focus our limited resources on those complaints where a person has suffered a significant personal injustice as a result of alleged fault.
Further to this, I can see no sign of fault by the Council here. The driver of the vehicle is entitled to park on Mr X’s road as it is legally parked there.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because the matter complained about has not caused Mr X any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to warrant an investigation by our office and it would not be a good use of limited public resources to do so.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman