Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a penalty charge notice. This is because we could not add to the investigation carried out by the Council.

The complaint

1. X complains that the Council failed to respond to a representation they made against a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN). X also complains that the Council failed to properly deal with her complaints about this matter.

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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 we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. X complained that the Council failed to respond to a representation made against a PCN. The Council said it could find no record of X making a representation and noted that they had paid the PCN.
6. I will not investigate X’s complaint because we could not add to the investigation carried out by the Council. X says they made representations, but the Council says these were not received. In the absence of any evidence, we cannot reach a robust decision either way.
7. I will not investigate how the Council dealt with X’s complaint. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate X’s complaint because we could not add to the Council’s investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman