The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the enforcement of a parking penalty charge notice as the Council offered the solution Mr X sought and our further involvement would not be warranted.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council failed to follow the correct legal process in enforcing a parking penalty charge notice (PCN), that its notices contained misleading and intimidating statements and that it failed to properly deal with his requests for information relating to this matter. Mr X says this has caused him stress, financial duress and a loss of his of statutory rights.
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. It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended) We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
On complaining to the Council, Mr X said he would accept as a resolution the opportunity to pay the PCN at the original, discounted level. The Council offered this to Mr X in its complaint response and as such, I do not consider our further involvement in the complaint is warranted, given our limited resources.
Any outstanding concerns Mr X has about the Council’s response to his information requests are best directed to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as it is the UK’s independent regulator for such matters.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the Council offered the solution he sought and the ICO is best placed to deal with any outstanding information request issues.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman