London Borough of Merton (26 000 041)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 17 May 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about Penalty Charge Notices for an alleged parking or traffic contravention. A further investigation is unlikely to achieve anything worthwhile.
The complaint
- Mr X says the Council wrongly issued several Penalty Charge Notices (PCN) because his car registration number was read inaccurately.
- Mr X complains he had to spend time contacting the Council about the notices. He also said he now must keep a close eye on his car, and he is worried the Council may wrongly issue another PCN.
- Mr X would like the Council to offer him a financial remedy, accept its errors and ensure measures are put in place to reduce the risk of reoccurrence.
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 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 considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council issued several penalty notices to Mr X. However, it accepts it wrongly issued them and therefore apologised to Mr X and cancelled the notices.
- We note the Council explained to Mr X the errors happened because the handheld devices used by its Enforcement Agents wrongly read his car registration number. It assured him it has reminded the Enforcement Officers to visually check car registration numbers before issuing a PCN.
- The Council also said it has raised the issue with its system provider for improvements. It confirmed to Mr X his car registration number and residents permit are recorded correctly on its system.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because a further investigation is unlikely to achieve anything worthwhile. The Council has already apologised to Mr X and cancelled the notices.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman