Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about penalty charge notices issued to the complainant who has a Blue Badge issued by another country. It is unlikely investigation would lead to any worthwhile outcome in terms of procedures. The complainant also has a right of appeal to a tribunal against any penalty charge notice the Council issues in future.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mr B, complained because the Council issued several penalty charge notices for parking contraventions. Mr B has a Blue Badge issued in another country and says the Council should have not issued the penalty charge notices.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
4. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if, for example, we believe it would not lead to any worthwhile outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I have considered what Mr B said in his complaint and background information provided by the Council.

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What I found

Background

6. The Council enforces parking restriction and takes recovery action using procedures set out in the Traffic Management Act 2004 and associated Regulations. The Council and motorists must follow these procedures although the Council has discretion to stop enforcement or recovery action if it believes there are good reasons to do so.
7. Mr B has a right of appeal against any penalty charge notice to London Tribunals which is a statutory tribunal. An appeal to London Tribunals is free and relatively easy to use. It is also the way in which Parliament expects people to challenge a penalty charge notice. For these reasons, the restriction I describe in paragraph 3 generally applies.

What I found

8. Mr B has a Blue Badge issued by another country but has received penalty charge notices from the Council. He has successfully appealed against some of these to London Tribunals and the Council has exercised its discretion to cancel others. However, Mr B believes the Council’s civil enforcement officers should be aware of the validity of his Blue Badge and not issue penalty charge notices which he then has to contest.
9. The Council has told me it has cancelled the most recent penalty charge notice issued to Mr B. It has also arranged training for staff in the various types of disabled parking badges in use. Further, it has also asked staff to adopt a compassionate and ‘common sense’ approach when dealing with challenges to penalty charge notices from disabled people generally.

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Final decision

10. I have decided we will not investigate this complaint. The Council has taken steps to address Mr B’s concerns and investigation is unlikely to achieve any further worthwhile outcome in terms of procedure. If the Council should issue any further penalty charge notice, Mr B will have a statutory right of appeal and we would not consider a complaint about it.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman