A decision by the Department of Infrastructure not to issue a Manx driving licence to a property owner who does not live in the island has been backed by the Tynwald ombudsman.

Tynwald commissioner for administration Malachy Cornwell-Kelly has supported the decision after a complaint was submitted.

The complainant, referred to only as ’Mr K’, was unhappy the DOI had refused to issue him with a Manx driving licence on the grounds he did not have an Isle of Man postal address.

The law prescribes that anyone applying a Manx driving licence should demonstrate they were ’normally resident’ here at the time the application was made.

He argued that he was resident in the Isle of Man, owned property here and sent his daughter to a school in the island. He pays taxes and National Insurance in the Isle of Man.

But Mr Cornwell-Kelly said that evidence ’made it quite clear that he is not, and was not at the material time, resident in the Isle of Man’.

Mr K works abroad for 11 and a half months of the year and his property is let. He uses temporary accommodation when he comes to the Isle of Man.

That meant he did not qualify for residential status, although he could be classed as ’domiciled’ here.

Technically, that also meant that the complaint did not come within the ombudsman’s jurisdiction, but Mr Cornwell-Kelly added: ’It would not be fair to leave the matter without recording that the Department of Infrastructure appears to have acted quite correctly.’