Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint that the Council gave her incorrect advice about whether her route to work entered its clean air zone. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss X, complains the Council wrongly advised her about its clean air zone (CAZ). She says that as a result she paid £923 in CAZ charges between May and December 2023 despite not actually driving in the CAZ.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

2. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
3. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. Miss X says she telephoned the Council on 16 May 2023 to ask whether the roads she used to drive to work were in the CAZ. She says the Council told her they were and she therefore paid £923 in CAZ charges between 17 May and 10 December 2023.
5. Miss X found out when she called the Council on 15 December 2023 that her route to work did not take her into the CAZ and that she could therefore request a refund of the charges she paid. However the Council has declined to refund Miss X’s payments and says it has no record of her telephone call on 16 May 2023.
6. When considering complaints we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we look at the available relevant evidence and decide what was more likely to have happened.
7. I appreciate Miss X is frustrated that she has paid the CAZ charge on numerous occasions when she says she did not drive in the CAZ. But without any evidence to show the Council wrongly advised her in May 2023 we could not say these charges resulted from any fault by the Council. We also could not prove Miss X did not drive in the CAZ over the period in question as the Council does not keep this information.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman