Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a penalty charge notice as we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X seeks.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council wrongly issued him with a penalty charge notice (PCN) when he was parked on a piece of private land. Mr X complains the Council then failed to cancel the PCN when he appealed. The PCN has now been cancelled but Mr X seeks an apology from the parking warden for issuing the PCN.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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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 has acknowledged to Mr X that the warden incorrectly issued the PCN and that they have been spoken to about this. It also acknowledged that the PCN should have been cancelled when Mr X first contacted the Council about it. The Council has apologised to Mr X for these problems and for the inconvenience he has been caused.
6. We will not investigate because we cannot add to this or obtain a personal apology to Mr X from a staff member. We deal with councils as corporate bodies, and we have no remit to impose sanctions on individual staff members.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot achieve the outcome he seeks.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman