The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s delay in responding to Mr X’s queries concerning the operation of a bus lane. This is because there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation and an investigation is unlikely to lead to the outcome Mr X seeks.
The complaint
The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, complains about the Council’s delay in responding to his queries relating to the operation of a bus lane which he had received Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) for entering. He wants the Council to refund the charges he paid for the PCNs.
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 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, or any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X, including the Council’s response to his queries.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Having received and paid three PCNs for driving his car in a bus lane, Mr X wrote to the Council asking it about the operation of the lane and the type of signage used for it.
He received no response despite having made his first contact at the end of last year and despite chasing the matter up. However, recently, the Council has now provided a full response to his queries and confirmed it will not be refunding the charges he had paid for the PCNs.
While Mr X’s frustration at the delay is noted, this is not a complaint we will investigate. We do not investigate every complaint we receive and, in this case, neither the fault by the Council nor the injustice caused to Mr X is sufficient to warrant an investigation. Moreover, even if we investigated the complaint, we would be unlikely to propose the remedy Mr X seeks.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation and an investigation is unlikely to lead to the outcome Mr X seeks.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman