Transport for London (23 007 982)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 22 Sep 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a penalty charge notice issued by Transport for London. This is because the amount of the penalty charge (£80) is not significant enough to warrant investigation.
The complaint
- The complainant, Mr X, complains Transport for London (TfL) issued him a penalty charge notice (PCN) for stopping in a box junction. Mr X says he had just picked up a new car so did not want to get too close to the car in front of him and only the boot of the car was overhanging the junction, so he was not causing an obstruction. He made representations against the PCN but TfL refused them so Mr X paid the penalty charge at the reduced rate of £80.
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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
- any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
- 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 Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- 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.
- I appreciate Mr X is frustrated that he received a PCN when he believes he was not obstructing the junction and that TfL did not cancel it following his challenge, but the amount of the PCN is not significant enough to warrant further investigation.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the issue of the PCN and TfL’s decision not to cancel it did not cause Mr X significant injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman