The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council issuing moving traffic penalties by post which Miss X says she did not receive. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Miss X complained about not receiving correspondence about a moving traffic penalty which she incurred. As a result, the case was passed to enforcement agents and the cost had increased.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether an organisation’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended) The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Miss X says she did not receive the statutory notices following the issue of a moving traffic penalty. The Council says it received representations from a third party when the penalty notice was sent to Miss X’s address. Because that party was not the keeper or owner of the vehicle it replied advising Miss X to make her own representations as she is the registered keeper. Miss X says she did not receive this letter and later received a charge certificate advising it would progress to the court if no payment was made.
Miss X emailed the Council and asked why it had not accepted the appeal. The Council replied to her offering an opportunity to pay the original discounted penalty amount because she said she had not received the letter. She says she did not receive this letter either and the Council progressed the case to the Traffic Enforcement Centre and obtained a recovery order which advised enforcement agents would handle the case if no payment or statutory declaration was received.
Miss X says she did not receive these letters either and only became aware of enforcement agents’ involvement when they contacted her. The Council says it issued the letters and has no reason to believe they were not delivered.
There is no evidence to indicate the Council failed to post the statutory notices as part of the enforcement process and Miss X was aware of the penalty and a later offer to pay at the original amount.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint about the Council issuing moving traffic penalties by post which Miss X says she did not receive. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman