The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a penalty charge notice for a parking contravention as it is reasonable to expect Mr X to appeal against it using the statutory appeal process available to him.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council wrongly issued a penalty charge (PCN) to him when he had a valid permit to park. Mr X also complains a Council officer was rude to him in a telephone call about this. Mr X wants the PCN to be cancelled and an apology.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), 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 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
The Council issued the PCN under the Traffic Management Act 2004. This provides an appeal process for motorists to challenge PCNs ultimately to independent parking adjudicators at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT). It is reasonable to expect Mr X to follow this process, to challenge the PCN.
I recognise Mr X remains upset as he feels he was spoken to rudely in a telephone call about the PCN. However, I do not consider this represents a level of injustice that would warrant our involvement.
For these reasons, we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is an appeal process available to him that is reasonable for him to use and the injustice to him from what may have been said in a telephone call is not sufficient to warrant our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman