The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the complainant overpaying for parking charges over around eight months. We do consider the complainant has suffered significant personal injustice which warrants our involvement.
The complaint
The complainant (I shall call Mr X) is represented by Mr Y.
Mr Y complains that Mr X overpaid for parking his electric car nine times between May 2021 and January 2022. He wants the Council to refund the overpayment of £53.37 and pay compensation for the time spent pursuing the complaint.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers# We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended) The injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr Y, which includes the Council’s response to the complaint.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Local Government Act 1974 allows the Ombudsman to investigate complaints where maladministration has resulted in a significant injustice to the complainant. We will not normally investigate where the authority’s actions have not caused an injustice or the type and extent of injustice does not warrant the public expense of our continued involvement. We do not consider that overpayment of less than £9 a month over 6 months is enough injustice to warrant an investigation.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr Y’s complaint because there is not enough personal injustice which warrants our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman