The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a Penalty Charge Notice for an alleged parking contravention. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant our involvement and no worthwhile outcome achievable by us investigating.
The complaint
Miss X complained the Council issued her with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for an alleged parking contravention. Miss X paid the PCN when it was issued, but said she later found out the Council issued it unlawfully.
Miss X said this caused her a financial impact.
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 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 the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Miss X complained the Council refused to consider representations about a PCN. Although Miss X paid for the PCN, she said she recently found out the Council issued it unlawfully.
The Council said it would not consider representations or issue a refund because the matter had been closed when Miss X paid.
We would be unlikely to find fault by the Council here. Payment of a PCN typically represents acceptance of liability and closes a PCN case.
Statutory guidance says a Council should consider representations within 28 days of a PCN being issued, whether it has been paid or not. The available evidence suggests Miss X tried to make representations more than 28 days after the PCN was issued.
The Ombudsman cannot tell the Council it should refund the amount Miss X paid for the PCN. This is Miss X’s desired outcome.
There is unlikely to be any other worthwhile outcome achievable by us investigating this complaint.
For these reasons, we will not investigate this complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council and no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman