Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Parking Charge Notice. This is because the complaint concerns the Council’s because the complaint concerns the Council’s actions as a social housing manager and provider.

The complaint

1. Miss Y complained the Council wrongly issued a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) to her, failed to respond to her appeal and passed her details on to enforcement agents, which she considers is a breach of data protection.
2. Miss Y says it has made her feel anxious.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information Miss Y and the Council provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Council issued Miss Y with a parking charge notice for parking without properly displaying a valid parking permit. Miss Y appealed to the Council. The Council rejected the appeal and referred Miss Y to the Housing Ombudsman. Miss Y then approached us.
7. The parking charge notice was issued on land belonging to the Council in its role as a social housing provider, managing the parking around its social housing. Consequently, the law says we cannot investigate this complaint as it is about how the Council has acted as a social housing provider in issuing and dealing with the parking charge notice.

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Final decision

8. We cannot investigate Miss Y’s complaint because the complaint concerns the Council’s actions as a social housing provider.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman