Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council is wrongly including a piece of private land in its controlled parking zone and issuing penalty charge notices to vehicles that park there. This is because the injustice arising from this, that is, the penalty charge notices, can be remedied by way of an appeal to an independent tribunal.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council is wrongly issuing penalty charge notices (PCNs) to vehicles parked on a piece of private land, which he says the Council, in error, deems to be within its controlled parking zone (CPZ ). Mr X wants the Council to be told that it cannot issue PCNs on this land.

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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 cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
4. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Parliament has provided an appeal mechanism for motorists to challenge PCNs that have been issued to them. This process culminates in an appeal to independent parking adjudicators at, in this case, London Tribunals. The Tribunal is empowered to decide if PCNs are valid or not. We do not have this power. It is reasonable therefore for someone having been issued with a PCN at this location, to challenge it on appeal. The information Mr X provides in support of his complaint to us can form part of such an appeal.
8. The Council's complaint response to Mr X indicates London Tribunals has considered an appeal against a PCN issued at this location and did not uphold the appeal. Mr X suggests this is because the Tribunal took account of inaccurate information provided to it by the Council. This is a matter that would need to be pursued with the Tribunal. We have no jurisdiction over its decisions.
9. We will not investigate because this complaint relates in essence to the issuing of PCNs and there is a statutory appeal process that is best placed to consider this matter.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot achieve the outcome he wants as this is a matter for the Tribunal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman