Bristol City Council (23 010 892)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 18 Oct 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council did not respond to Mr X’s complaint as any injustice caused to Mr X is not sufficient to justify our involvement.
The complaint
- Mr X complained that the Council failed to initially action evidence he provided to it in support of his case against a penalty charge notice (PCN) the Council had issued to him. Mr X is unhappy as the Council said at first it would provide a response but then declined to do so, as in its view, the complaint related to a PCN and so was not eligible for a response under its corporate complaint procedure. Mr X says this caused him stress and to spend time chasing up his complaint, for which he seeks compensation.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- While I recognise Mr X remains unhappy and may have spent time chasing up his complaint, from our perspective, this does not represent a level of injustice that would justify our involvement. We have limited resources and must direct them to the most serious cases. This is not such a case, and we will not therefore investigate.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient injustice to warrant our further involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman