Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about a penalty charge notice issued by the Council. The Council was not at fault for issuing the notice and if Miss X disputes it, it would be reasonable for her to appeal.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss X, complains the Council issued her a penalty charge notice (PCN) for overstaying in a council-run car park.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we would find fault. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
4. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for all areas of England outside London.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I reviewed Miss X’s complaint, shared my draft decision with her and invited her comments.

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What I found

6. Miss X parked in a council car park in September 2019. The Council allows free parking for up to two hours, charges £2.50 for up to four hours or £3.50 all-day.
7. Miss X intended to purchase all-day parking but she paid only £3.30; her parking ticket therefore ran for four hours. Miss X did not notice her mistake and left her car in the car park for longer than the four hours she had paid for. The Council noticed she had overstayed and issued her a PCN. Miss X complains about this as she believes it is unfair.
8. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. It is clear Miss X made a mistake but it was not fault for the Council to issue her a PCN. She overstayed her paid time in the car-park and we could not say the Council was wrong to issue the PCN.
9. If Miss X wishes to challenge the PCN she may do so under the statutory appeals process. The process can take account of mitigation so Miss X may put forward her reasons for overstaying/underpaying and the Council (and ultimately an adjudicator) may consider these in deciding whether to cancel the PCN.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely we would find fault by the Council and if Miss X wishes to dispute the PCN it would be reasonable for her to appeal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman