The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with Mr X’s representations about a penalty charge notice as it would not be in the public interest to do so.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council delayed and provided confusing responses to his representations against a penalty charge notice (PCN) it had issued to him for not displaying a ticket to park. Mr X believes the Council’s should confirm what it has done to amend its processes to prevent this happening again and that it should make a payment to him of £200 in recognition of the time and trouble he spent on this issue.
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 fault has not caused serious injustice to the person who complained (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 remains unhappy with the Council’s handling of the PCN, from our perspective, there is insufficient remaining injustice caused to him, from any Council fault, that would warrant our involvement. The Council has cancelled the PCN and apologised for its errors. As such, I do not consider it would be in the public interest for us to investigate this complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because any Council fault has not caused Mr X a level of injustice that would warrant our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman