Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about a Penalty Charge Notice for an alleged parking contravention. This is because the Council has cancelled the Penalty Charge Notice. It does not warrant a further investigation by this office.

The complaint

1. Miss X says the Council wrongly issued a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for an alleged parking contravention and did not properly consider and respond to her representations about it.

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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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6) & (7) as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information from the complainant and the Council and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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Final decision

4. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. This is because the Council informed us, in response to our initial enquiries, that it has cancelled the PCN. It did so due to an administrative error in the Council’s contest to the Witness Statement, not due to an error in the issuing of the PCN. This achieves the outcome sought by Miss X in making her complaint to this office. It does not now warrant a further investigation by us.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman