The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a penalty charge notice. This is because the Council has now cancelled the penalty charge notice, and it is unlikely investigation would achieve anything more for Mr X.
The complaint
Mr X complains about a penalty charge notice (PCN) issued by the Council. He says there were no signs about parking restrictions, and that the Council has not properly responded to his representations against the PCN.
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 continue 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 there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council has now responded to Mr X’s representations and agreed to cancel the PCN as a gesture of goodwill. It remains of the view the PCN was properly issued and while I appreciate Mr X disagrees with this, cancellation is the most he could have achieved through the appeals process. I am therefore satisfied the Council’s actions provide a suitable remedy for Mr X and it is unlikely the Ombudsman would be able to achieve any further outcome through investigation.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the Council has cancelled the PCN and it is unlikely further investigation would achieve significantly more for Mr X.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman