Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a penalty charge notice. This is because the Council has provided a partial remedy for the complaint and the remaining injustice Mr X claims is not significant enough to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has refunded only part of his payment for a penalty charge notice (PCN) despite accepting it failed to properly consider his representations against the PCN. He also complains the Council failed to respond to his Stage 2 complaint within a reasonable time.

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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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. We do not investigate all the complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider various tests. These include the alleged injustice to the person complaining. We only investigate the most serious complaints.
6. I understand Mr X is frustrated the Council has refunded only part of his payment but the remaining amount (£80) is not significant enough to warrant investigation. The amount represents payment at the original discounted amount and although I appreciate Mr X also claims some wasted time and effort in pursuing the matter I do not consider this is significantly more than any other motorist dealing with a PCN under the normal statutory process.
7. Mr X is also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with his complaint.  But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about.  We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council has refunded part of Mr X’s payment for the PCN and any remaining injustice is not significant enough to warrant investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman