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Annual Report of the Ombudsman 2008 (text version)

5.2.2 Selected Cases - Councils exceed their authority on parking permits for residents

The theme of my Annual Report last year was based on a single issue viz., the failure of public bodies to act correctly in accordance with the law and any other rules and regulations. I referred to the need for the decisions made on a daily basis by public servants to be based on some form of authority, statutory or otherwise. I outlined a number of cases which illustrated where individual public bodies had exercised their authority improperly or unfairly, had exceeded their authority, or, indeed, had no authority to take the action complained of.

Last year my Office dealt with two interesting complaints in this area as follows:

Cork City Council

I received several complaints against Cork City Council in relation to its refusal to grant resident parking permits to residents who lived in various apartment complexes in the city area, on the grounds that private off-street parking was available to them. The council's policy was that the Residents Parking Permit Scheme is administered in accordance with the parking bye-laws which came into operation in July 2005 and do not provide off-street parking for residents of multi-purpose developments. Having examined the relevant bye-laws, I was of the opinion that they did not support the council's policy and I asked the council to review the matter. The council accepted that there were some inconsistencies between its parking bye-laws and the policy adopted by the council, and it agreed to amend its policy to allow the issue of parking permits to apartment residents. The complainants were therefore advised to contact the council again for parking permits.

Tralee Town Council

A resident of Tralee Town Council was refused a resident parking permit on the basis that another member of the household was in receipt of a permit and the council's policy was that only one permit would issue per household.

The town council had issued several parking fines to several members of the household, including a court summons to one member of the household for non-display of a valid parking disc/parking permit.

The council's solicitor withdrew the summons on the day of the court appearance as "there was no reasonable prospect of success on the matter, no legal basis for the practice of restricting one permit per dwelling, and any such practice operated by Tralee Town Council is contrary to the provisions of the bye-laws".

However the council continued to restrict the grant of parking permits to one per household and continued to issue parking fines to residents for parking in the area without displaying a permit / valid parking disc.

Following discussion with my Office, the council accepted that the practice it followed was not supported by its bye-laws and undertook to change its practice. It agreed:

1. To compensate my complainant in relation to any legal fees incurred,
2. To Issue additional permits to qualifying residents, and
3. Not to issue summonses in relation to the traffic fines in this case.
   

The council advised that it planned to conduct a reassessment of its bye-laws and bring forward amended and updated bye-laws for public consultation, in order to clarify a number of matters.

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