City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council (25 031 919)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 27 May 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about enforcement action taken following a parking penalty charge notice (PCN). This is because there is not significant enough injustice to justify investigation.
The complaint
- Ms X complains about the action of the Council’s enforcement agents (EA) seeking payment of a PCN. She says this caused anxiety.
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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council issued two PCNs to Ms X. When no payment was made, the Council passed one of the PCNs to an enforcement agent (EA) to recover the debt. The EA wrote to and telephoned Ms X, including threatening to come to her home. Whilst I appreciate Ms X may have found the EA action stressful, I do not consider that a significant enough injustice to warrant the Ombudsman devoting time and public money to investigating the complaint. This is especially so as the Council has now withdrawn the PCN from the EA.
- Ms X made a late witness statement to the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) in which she stated she did not receive earlier correspondence about the PCN. If the TEC accepts that statement and puts the recovery action back to an earlier stage, Ms X will have the right to appeal to an independent adjudicator where she can argue any mitigating circumstances relevant to when she incurred the PCN.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is not significant enough injustice to warrant investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman