He wrote: “I acknowledge that enforcement action is discretionary, but the council was aware of Mr X’s concerns regarding this matter and was aware of the impact to Mr X of the dropped kerb being blocked.
Mr X said that a council officer eventually told him it did not matter about the dropped kerb, as vehicles could park to load and unload for periods of 20 minutes or less, even if this blocked the gate to his disabled parking space.
Mr X, who has since moved to a new property, said that cars would regularly park across the dropped kerb outside his home, despite there being a set of double yellow lines painted along it.
The council admitted that ideally, its officers should have transferred Mr X’s call to the council’s customer contact centre, where trained staff are available to assist in documenting and processing complaints.
The council told the ombudsman that the dropped kerb is not a designated ‘disabled access dropped kerb’, though it acknowledged there was a history of the kerb being repeatedly obstructed.
