Stroud District Council (19 018 784)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 19 Mar 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about how the Council issues parking fines. This is because there is insufficient remaining injustice caused to Mrs X to warrant the Ombudsman’s involvement.
The complaint
- Mrs X complains the Council is issuing parking fines without evidence of contraventions.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered what Mrs X said in her complaint. I have written to Mrs X with my draft decision on the complaint and given her the chance to comment.
What I found
- Mrs X was issued with a parking fine for parking in a free 23 hour car park for longer than the permitted time. Mrs X says she uses the car park daily for around five hours. Mrs X challenged the fine with the Council, explaining this, and the fine was cancelled.
- Based on this experience, Mrs X considers the Council is issuing parking fines without proper evidence and forcing motorists to pay fines unlawfully. Mrs X wants the Ombudsman to investigate.
Assessment
- We investigate complaints of personal injustice. The remaining injustice caused to Mrs X, as the fine has been cancelled, is not at a level that would warrant our involvement.
- I do not consider this is a complaint we would investigate on public interest grounds.
Final decision
- My decision is that the Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint about how the Council issues parking fines. This is because Mrs X is not caused a significant, personal injustice from her complaint.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman