Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a wrongly issued penalty charge notice as there is insufficient remaining injustice caused to the complainant and our further involvement is therefore not warranted.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council wrongly issued him with a penalty charge notice (PCN) when he had pre-paid the fee to travel over a toll bridge. Mr X says this caused him stress and worry. While the PCN has been cancelled Mr X wants the Council to give him a reassurance this will never happen again.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 remaining injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, and we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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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 explained to Mr X that the PCN was issued to him because of human error when one of its staff wrongly identified his vehicle registration number as that of a vehicle registered outside of the UK. The Council has explained it has updated training processes and IT systems to try to ensure this does not happen in future. It apologised to Mr X and offered him a payment of £60 as a gesture of goodwill.
6. While I appreciate that Mr X remains dissatisfied with what happened, we will not investigate as we cannot add to what the Council has already said or offered him. The Council has put in place measures to address what took place but has explained that such measures cannot completely rule out human error in future. Any intervention from us would not change this and from our perspective, there is insufficient remaining injustice caused to Mr X to warrant our further involvement, given the Council’s apology and financial payment.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because any remaining injustice caused to him is not sufficient to justify our further involvement and we cannot add to what the Council has already said.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman