Summary: We will not investigate X’s complaint that the Council failed to reimburse them for a parking charge. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault causing a significant injustice.

The complaint

1. X complains that the Council has refused to reimburse them for a parking charge which they paid for in error. X says they meant to book parking for one hour but booked for five hours instead.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council refused to reimburse X for the parking charge as they had no way of knowing how long X had parked for so could not confirm if they had parked for one hour or five.
6. I will not investigate X’s complaint because there is insufficient fault by the Council which has considered X’s request for reimbursement and explained why it was refusing. Furthermore, whilst X may have paid for more parking than she required I do not consider the additional payment to amount to a significant enough injustice to warrant investigation by the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault causing X a significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman