Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Authority’s decision not to pay compensation following a congestion charge error. This is because the Authority has provided a satisfactory response and there is not enough injustice to require an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Authority will not pay compensation after it charged the congestion zone fee in error. Mr X wants compensation.

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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 an investigation if we decide:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6) 24A(7), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Authority. This includes the complaint correspondence and a copy of the cheque the Authority sent to Mr X. I also considered our Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. The congestion charge cameras wrongly read Mr X’s vehicle registration. As a result, the Authority charged the congestion zone fee and took a £15 payment.
5. Mr X complained. The Authority reviewed the images and said it should not have made the charge. It sent Mr X a cheque for £15 and said his vehicle will be manually checked before making a congestion zone charge, rather than relying on the automated system. The Authority declined to pay compensation.
6. Mr X says the Authority made the error and should compensate him for his time, call costs, and stress.
7. I will not start an investigation because the Authority has provided a satisfactory response. It explained what went wrong, issued a refund and explained what it will do to stop the error being repeated. There is nothing more I would expect the Authority to do.
8. I acknowledge Mr X had to spend some time and money dealing with this issue. This, however, is to be expected when trying to resolve a problem and not everything that goes wrong warrants compensation. In the context of the Authority’s response, there is not enough remaining injustice to require an investigation or compensation.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint because the Authority has provided a satisfactory response and there is not enough evidence of injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman