Manchester City Council (25 020 785)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Upheld
Decision date : 30 Mar 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a penalty charge notice. The Council has now cancelled the penalty charge. Investigation by us would not achieve anything more.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about the Council’s handling of a penalty charge notice (PCN). He says the Council improperly escalated the PCN without first considering evidence he provided.
- Mr X says the matter has caused him distress. He wants the Council to apologise and compensate him for the mismanagement of his case.
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:
- 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))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
- I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The evidence I have seen shows that after Mr X complained to the Council, it considered his evidence and cancelled the PCN.
- Now the Council has cancelled the PCN, I do not consider the remaining injustice is significant enough to warrant our involvement. While I acknowledge Mr X seeks a further remedy, as a publicly funded body we must be careful how we use our resources. I am satisfied the Council’s cancellation of the PCN is sufficient to remedy injustice caused from any alleged fault and further investigation by us would not achieve anything more.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because investigation by us would not achieve anything more.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman