London Borough of Croydon (25 005 442)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 10 Aug 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a penalty charge notice. This is because the Council has cancelled the penalty charge notice and it is unlikely an investigation would achieve significantly more.
The complaint
- Mr X complained the Council would not cancel a penalty charge notice (PCN) after he said he could not afford to pay the fine.
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 further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X told the Council he could not afford to pay the PCN. The Council said it would extend the due date for the payment as a gesture of good will, but it would not cancel the PCN. Mr X responded to say this was not helpful as he still could not afford to pay.
- The Council then responded to Mr X to tell him it had cancelled the PCN. But it says this was an error as there were no grounds to do so. So it sent another letter to Mr X to confirm the PCN remained valid and must be paid.
- The Council accepts it made a mistake processing the PCN by telling Mr X it had been cancelled; it has therefore agreed to cancel the PCN as a gesture of goodwill.
- We consider the Council’s actions provide a suitable remedy for the impact of its error. An investigation would therefore be unlikely to achieve significantly more for Mr X.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X ’s complaint because the Council has cancelled the PCN and it is unlikely an investigation would achieve significantly more.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman