Bristol City Council (23 015 118)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 12 Jan 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of clean air penalty charge notices as the Council is reviewing the complaint and it is reasonable to allow it to do so.
The complaint
- Mr X complained the Council wrongly issued him with three clean air penalty charge notices (PCNs) after, he says, the Council’s cameras misread his registration number. This caused Mr X stress and worry as he thought his car registration had been cloned, and inconvenience from trying to sort the matter out. Mr X seeks a financial payment from the Council in recognition of this.
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 it is reasonable to allow the Council to review the complaint (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
- Mr X complained to the Council about this matter at the beginning of October 2023. The Council responded by offering Mr X a financial payment but Mr X did not accept the amount it offered. In December 2023, the Council told Mr X his complaint was to be reviewed. I consider it is reasonable to wait for the complaint review and we will not therefore investigate at this stage.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the Council is conducting a review of the matter and it is reasonable to wait for the outcome of that.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman