The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council responded to a service request and communicated with the complainant. This is because there is insufficient evidence of injustice.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I refer to as Mrs X, complains the Council misled her about the provision of a H marking and unfairly raised her expectations. She also complains of delayed and inaccurate responses.
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 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: 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), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mrs X and our Assessment Code.
My assessment
Last summer Mrs X attended a meeting with the Council and was told it would consider if she could have a H marking to protect her drive. In September the Council sent an email to Mrs X’s councillor saying it stopped providing H lines in 2016. The Council did not tell Mrs X she could not have a H line until December and this was despite Mrs X chasing the Council and making a complaint.
Mrs X raised some complaints with the Council which included complaints about inaccurate information regarding enforcement times, a lack of service standards for response times, and not treating a previous contact as a complaint.
The Council explained what had happened regarding the H line and apologised for not sending Mrs X the response it had been sent to the councillor. It apologised for delayed responses and for not responding correctly to her complaint. The Council clarified the response times for the parking enforcement team and said it would ensure enquiries about H lines are dealt with by the correct team. It reminded staff of the need to reply promptly to enquiries and complaints. The Council explained that each service area has its own response times for calls and emails but it explained the general expectations in terms of good practice.
This matter could have been handled better by the Council. It is reasonable to expect that within a week or so it could have told Mrs X it does not provide H lines. But, because this did not happen, Mrs X had to chase and complain and there were then delays and inaccuracies in the subsequent responses. The subsequent problems would not have incurred if the initial enquiry about the H line had received a quick and accurate response.
But, while I acknowledge these failings, the impact is not one that requires an investigation. Mrs X had her expectations raised and it took six months for the Council to tell her she could not have a H line; while I appreciate this may have been frustrating, Mrs X has not lost out on a service and the impact is not so significant as to require an investigation.
There were delays and some conflicting information about when the enforcement team operates but the Council has apologised, corrected the information and reminded staff of the need to provide timely responses. Again, while this may have added to Mrs X’s frustration, it has not caused an injustice requiring an investigation.
Mrs X says there should be a service standard across the Council for responding to calls and emails. The Council has explained why this is not the case and set out its general expectations. I appreciate Mrs X thinks this could be improved but it is for Council to decide how it will manage its service. If Mrs X thinks the Council should adopt a standard response time she could raise this as an issue with her local councillors.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman