this complaint about the Council’s failure to issue parking penalties against owners of vehicles which Mr X says are frequently obstructing his access. There is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council which would warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mr X complained about the Council’s failure to address his complaints about obstruction of his driveway access by vehicles parked close to it. He says this causes inconvenience for him and his visitors and he believes the Council should install signs or yellow line restrictions. He says the parking is an example of anti-social behaviour and should be dealt with as such.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council’s response.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X says his access to his driveway is often obstructed or restricted by a neighbour’s vehicle which is parked inconsiderately. He wants the Council to issue parking penalties for the obstruction and preferably to introduce yellow line sand signage.
The Council investigated his complaint and said it has not observed examples of obstruction on visits made to the site. Mr X has provided photographs of the vehicle but it cannot take action on these. The Council has powers which it could use under the Traffic Management Act 2004 but it has chosen not to carry out enforcement for obstruction of dropped kerbs except where there are tactile footway crossings for visually impaired and disabled pedestrians.
The powers under the legislation for carrying out parking enforcement are discretionary and it is for each authority to decide how it should carry out enforcement according to its resources. In this case the council has considered Mr X’s requests but has decided not to exercise enforcement powers available.
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 someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to issue parking penalties against owners of vehicles which Mr X says are frequently obstructing his access. There is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council which would warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman