The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the enforcement of parking regulations. This is because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
The complaint
Ms Y complained the Council has failed to enforce parking regulations in her area. Ms Y says she has been unable to get out of her car in one incident due to another vehicle obstructing her and blocking her dropped kerb.
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 or continue an investigation if we decide 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 Mrs Y provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered a serious loss, harm or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss of injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
In this case, Mrs Y feels strongly about the inconvenience she experiences when the dropped kerb outside her property was blocked by another driver. However, we would not consider this a serious loss, harm or distress. As we must use public funds carefully, we will not investigate a complaint where the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. As that is the case here, we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs Y ’s complaint because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman