The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council enforced parking restrictions. That is because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.
The complaint
Mr X complained the Council had not taken appropriate action to enforce parking restrictions outside a local garage. He said the garage frequently parked its vehicles on the yellow lines outside its premises. Mr X said that caused accessibility issues for people walking on the pavement and impacted on local residents. Mr X wants the Council to enforce parking restrictions in the area.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
In the Council’s response to Mr X, it said its parking wardens patrolled the garage area as often as resources allowed, but the parking enforcement team had a large area to patrol. It said the parking wardens would issue penalty charge notices where the law allowed or ask the vehicles to move on.
We will not investigate this complaint further. There is no statutory duty on the Council to enforce parking restrictions and the Council has explained that its parking wardens have a large area to patrol. Therefore, there is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to justify our involvement. In addition, I do not consider the Council’s actions have caused Mr X a significant injustice.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman