The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a penalty charge notice for a parking contravention as Mr X is not caused a significant personal injustice from his complaint.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council issued a parking penalty charge notice (PCN) to his visitor’s car that was parked near his home. Mr X says there are no parking restrictions in place and that he was caused embarrassment due to his visitor being issued with a PCN.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (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
While I recognise Mr X is unhappy about the PCN, he is not personally affected to such a degree that would warrant our involvement.
We cannot investigate any complaint relating to the PCN itself as we do not have consent to do so from the registered keeper of the vehicle in question. Even so, we normally do not investigate complaints about PCNs, as there is a statutory appeal process available to PCN recipients who wish to challenge them.
For these reasons, we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the injustice he claims is not sufficient to warrant our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman