The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the parking permit charging policy adopted by the Council. It is reasonable to expect the complainant to have contacted us sooner and, in any case, there is not enough evidence of fault in the way the Council decided to adopt the policy.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the parking permit charging policy adopted by the Council, which will result in the amount he pays increasing incrementally over seven years.
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 can investigate 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. So, 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), as amended, section 34(B)) In that regard, we can consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. But 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) And 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 X.
the Council’s ‘Parking and Enforcement Plan 2022-2027’ (PEP).
the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The time restriction detailed in paragraph 5 above applies to Mr X’s complaint. This is because the Council’s Cabinet agreed the PEP in October 2022, following a period of consultation which Mr X contributed to, and it was adopted in November 2022. Yet Mr X did not contact the Ombudsman until March 2024. I see no reasons why Mr X was prevented from complaining to us sooner, so we will not investigate this late complaint now.
And even if this restriction did not apply, the Ombudsman does not act as 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 the complainant disagrees with the decision the organisation made. I have seen no evidence to suggest there was any procedural fault in the way the Council reached the decision to adopt the policy, so the Ombudsman would not investigate the complaint for this reason too.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is reasonable to expect him to have contacted us sooner and, in any case, there is not enough evidence of fault in the way the Council decided to adopt the policy.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman