Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to refund her Clean Air Zone charge payments. This is because the matter has not caused Miss X any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss X, complains about the Council’s decision not to refund the Clean Air Zone payments she made for a three day trip after she realised she did not need it.

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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)
3. We do not start an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Miss X paid the Clean Air Zone charge for a three day period in advance of a planned trip within the Clean Air Zone. Miss X then realised she did not need to pay the charge and asked the Council to provide her with a refund.
7. The Council told Miss X it would not refund her payment as it did not meet the circumstances under which a refund would be provided.
8. Miss X says she was not informed in advance that refunds would not be issued in her circumstances and feels this is unfair.
9. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. This is because the matter has not caused Miss X any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to warrant an investigation. The amount Miss X paid, and wants refunded is relatively modest and does not warrant the use of public funds to for us to carry out an investigation. We do not investigate every complaint we receive. We must focus our limited public resources on investigating those complaints where a person has suffered a significant person injustice as a result of fault by a body in our jurisdiction.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because the matter complained about has not caused her any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to warrant an investigation by this office.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman