All Case Studies

Parking and antisocial behaviour (August 2025)

Summary

In March and April 2023, Mr W contacted us regarding parking issues and some antisocial behaviour. We wrote back signposting the resident to a weblink to report the issues directly to our parking contractor who manage enforcement.

The resident complained that the contractor had not previously acted and that we did not “take antisocial behaviour seriously”. Our stage 1 response, on 20 April 2023, advised the actions that the contractor had taken and encouraged him to report further issues via the link.

From May 2023 the resident reported to us that parking issues were being caused by other nearby residents running vehicle businesses. He asked us to escalate his complaint on 29 September 2023, as we had not responded to his last contact in July 2023. We told him that our contractor was dealing with the parking issues and that we would pass his vehicle business concerns to our Antisocial Behaviour team.

Our stage 2 response on 10 November 2023 apologised to Mr W for communication shortcomings and offered £50 compensation. We outlined how we will investigate into his reports of vehicle businesses and offered a removable bollard for his parking space, which he declined.

Mr W made a further complaint on 13 April 2024 about antisocial behaviour and parking, citing a neighbour’s all-day party blocking the road. Our stage 1 response on 26 April focused on parking and did not address the party, prompting Mr W’s disappointment. We later apologised and explained our Antisocial behaviour policy.

On 2 July 2024, Mr W escalated his complaint, citing another party with loud music, a motorbike and bin blocking the path, and a nearby car washing business causing issues.

Our stage 2 response on 20 August 2024, following a panel review, explained actions taken on his reports, acknowledged communication failures, addressed delays and failings from his 2023 complaint, apologised, and offered £300 compensation.

The Ombudsman’s investigation found that

1. there were initial delays to complaint handling
2. we did not explain what we would and wouldn’t treat as antisocial behaviour initially
3. we should have communicated clearly that parking complaints were not considered antisocial behaviour under our policy
4. reports of vehicle-related businesses, parties, motorbike, and bin issues were initially unaddressed or insufficiently explained, though later investigations and clarifications were made
5. we acknowledged that the 2024 complaint repeated earlier issues and reviewed the entire case
6. we had apologised for the failings and awarded £350 compensation in line with Ombudsman guidance
7. that we accepted responsibility, apologised, and demonstrated learning from the complaint
8. therefore redress was deemed appropriate, even though the resident stated the underlying issues had not fully improved

Outcome

That we had offered reasonable redress prior to the Ombudsman’s investigation.

Recommendations

Pay the resident £350 compensation if we had not already done so.

Consider contacting the resident to listen to his current parking and path concerns and discuss how it may address this.