St Albans City Council (25 023 024)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 06 May 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a Penalty Charge Notice for an alleged parking contravention. This is because the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
The complaint
- Ms X says the Council unfairly issued her with a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) for parking in a disabled bay that was not clearly marked.
- Although, the Council has refunded the charge, Ms X says she suffered stress, inconvenience and had to go to unnecessary effort.
- She says she wants the Council to make sure it clearly marks disabled bays, recognises the impact on her and pays her compensation to reflect this.
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:
- we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information from Ms X and the Council and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council had already reviewed its decision and refunded the charge.
- The injustice suffered by Ms X because the Council issued her with a PCN, which she chose to dispute, is not sufficient to justify our investigation, when the Council has already revoked the PCN.
- The Council has said that it is reviewing the location and marking of the bay in question.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint because the injustice suffered is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman