Westminster City Council (24 019 972)

Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 18 Mar 2025

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a Penalty Charge Notice because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigation.

The complaint

  1. Mr Y complained the Council wrongly issued a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) to him for stopping in a yellow box junction. He says this has affected him, financially and is seeking a refund.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. 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))
  2. London Tribunals considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for London.

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

  1. I considered information Mr Y and the Council provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

  1. Mr Y disputes the validity of the PCN the Council has issued. He has now paid the penalty, despite his disagreement with it, instead of using his right to appeal it to the London Tribunals. Mr Y says he does not believe he had commit the contravention; it is for him as the driver and recipient of the PCN to challenge this with the Tribunal if he does not wish to pay the penalty.
  2. In deciding not to appeal and paying the penalty, Mr Y has legally accepted his liability for the penalty and the validity of the PCN itself. As he has accepted his responsibility and liability for the PCN, there is not enough evidence of fault in the issuing of the PCN to justify our investigation. We will not investigate.

Back to top

Final decision

  1. We will not investigate Mr Y’s complaint because it is reasonable to expect Mr Y to appeal to the Traffic Enforcement Centre and the London Tribunals.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Print this page

LGO logogram

Review your privacy settings

Required cookies

These cookies enable the website to function properly. You can only disable these by changing your browser preferences, but this will affect how the website performs.

View required cookies

Analytical cookies

Google Analytics cookies help us improve the performance of the website by understanding how visitors use the site.
We recommend you set these 'ON'.

View analytical cookies

In using Google Analytics, we do not collect or store personal information that could identify you (for example your name or address). We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data. Google has developed a tool to help you opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Privacy settings