Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the allocation of parking permits as we do not have the legal remit to do so.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council is unfairly allocating parking permits to residents of his housing estate. Mr X has health issues and complains he cannot park near to his home and that he has received four penalty charge notices (PCNs) from the Council when he parked to unload shopping. Mr X wants the Council to issue him with a permit and to cancel the PCNs.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended)
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X lives on a housing estate managed by the Council. The law says we cannot investigate complaints about the management of such estates and so we cannot investigate the Council’s parking permit policy for the estate or how it has dealt with Mr X’s application for a permit.
7. Parliament has provided an appeal mechanism by which Mr X can challenge the PCNs issued to him, ultimately to an independent body, London Tribunals. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to use this process and we cannot cancel the PCNs. As such, we will not investigate this aspect of the complaint.

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Final decision

8. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is not within our legal remit.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman