Birmingham City Council (24 020 266)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 10 Mar 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint the Council wrongly issued a Penalty Charge Notice. The Council has cancelled the notice. Further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
The complaint
Mrs X complained the Council wrongly issued a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for driving in a Clean Air Zone (CAZ) when her vehicle was exempt. She said the Council ignored the evidence she provided and wrongly escalated the unpaid PCN to enforcement agents. She wants the Council to cancel the PCN and any enforcement action, to apologise and to pay her £1000 compensation for the distress caused.
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:
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
- we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(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
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council. The Council issued the PCN in July 2024. Mrs X did not contact the Council until 2025.
- The Council cancelled the PCN after Mrs X provided evidence her vehicle was exempt from the CAZ. It took around a month to do that. We would not consider that a significant delay. Further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
- Mrs X wants the Council to pay her £1000 compensation for the distress caused. That is not an outcome we could achieve.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman