Council to make new Traffic Regulation Order after Ombudsman investigation into refusal of parking permits

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council has agreed to make a new Traffic Regulation Order after an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found that residents in new-build properties in its town centre were unfairly refused parking permits.

The Ombudsman examined the council’s permit restrictions after a man complained he had bought a flat on a road identified on the council’s own website as qualifying.

When the man applied for his permit, it was refused. He has had to pay £50 a month to park near his flat since he moved in.

The Ombudsman’s investigation found the council had decided to change its town centre Controlled Parking Zone without making the necessary amendments to its Traffic Regulation Order (TRO).

The council has agreed to:

• apologise to the resident;
• pay him £200 for the parking charges he has so far paid and then £50 a month till it gives him a new permit;
• make a new Traffic Regulation Order to give affected residents the chance to make objections; and
• not to refuse future permits from affected town centre residents until it has made the order allowing this.

Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “The council should have amended its Traffic Regulation Order, and should not have refused applicants until it had amended the order.

“We cannot know how many other people have been wrongly declined a parking permit, and so have been paying to park when they may not have needed to.

“I welcome the council’s readiness to accept my recommendations to put things right for people in Stockport.”