Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a penalty charge notice. This is because the Council has now cancelled the penalty charge notice, and it is unlikely investigation would achieve anything more for Mr X.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s handling of a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for driving through a bus gate that was restricted to use by certain vehicles. Mr X says there was poor signage, a lack of a physical bus gate and he did not receive the initial PCN. He complains about the Council’s decision to take enforcement action and its handling of this action. He says enforcement agents failed to consider his disabilities.
2. Mr X complains the Council refused to progress his complaint under its complaints process and failed to give him a single point of contact as a reasonable adjustment. Instead, it treated his complaint as an appeal against the PCN.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Following Mr X’s complaint to us the Council cancelled the PCN. Mr X has therefore achieved the main outcome he was seeking. Further investigation is unlikely to achieve anything more.
7. Mr X is unhappy with the time and trouble he was put to challenging the PCN. Parliament has provided an appeal mechanism whereby motorists who feel they have been wrongly issued with a PCN can challenge it. This process does not in general carry any provision for the motorist to also claim compensation; the remedy provided is, in essence, the cancellation of the PCN. As such, as the cancellation of the PCN provides the remedy in this case, there are not grounds for us to recommend the Council make a financial payment to Mr X, for the time and trouble he was put to in challenging the PCN. So, we will not investigate this complaint.
8. It is not normally a good use of our limited resources to investigate a council’s complaint handling alone if we are not investigating the substantive matter. Further, any injustice related to this matter is not significant enough to justify our involvement. We will not investigate this part of the complaint.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint about a penalty charge notice. This is because the Council has now cancelled the penalty charge notice, and it is unlikely investigation would achieve anything more for Mr X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman