The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to respond to his representations against a penalty charge notice. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council failed to respond to his representations against a penalty charge notice (PCN). As a result the amount of the charge increased from the discounted rate of £65 to £195.
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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
I shared my draft decision with Mr X and invited his comments.
My assessment
Councils must respond to representations against PCNs received within the relevant period. In this case Mr X says the Council claims not to have received Mr X’s representations and Mr X has provided no evidence to show it did. We cannot therefore say the Council was at fault for failing to respond to them.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman