The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We have upheld Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to consider her complaint about a lack of response to her reports of illegal parking. The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by investigating her complaint under its complaints procedure, which is a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused.
The complaint
Ms X complains the Council has failed to act in response to her reports of illegal parking and refused to investigate her complaint about the matter. She says this has caused frustration and inconvenience. She wants the Council to ensure its parking enforcement officers regularly patrol her area and attend in response to her reports of illegal parking.
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 further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
If we investigated this complaint, it is likely we would find fault because although Ms X’s complaint relates to the actions of the Council’s parking enforcement service, it had refused to investigate her complaint on the grounds that it did not relate to a Council service. This has caused Ms X frustration and she says the matter is unresolved.
We therefore asked the Council to consider remedying the injustice caused by agreeing to investigate her complaint under its complaints procedure to resolve the complaint early.
The Council has agreed to resolve the complaint and will now investigate and respond to her complaint under its complaints procedure.
Final decision
We have upheld this complaint because the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman