Summary: The Ombudsman cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a penalty charge notice. This is because she has exercised her right to make a statutory declaration to the Traffic Enforcement Centre. He complaint is therefore outside our jurisdiction.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council failed to send a notice of rejection on her challenge to a penalty charge notice (PCN).
2. She says it agreed to take her case back to the first stage of the process, but she received a court order.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal or a government minister or started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6), as amended)
5. London Tribunals (previously known as the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service) considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for London.

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered the information provided by Miss X and the Council. Miss X had the opportunity to comment on the draft version of this decision.

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What I found

7. The Council issued Miss X a PCN in April 2019. Miss X says she made a representation to the Council. It says it rejected her representation and sent her a Notice of Rejection.
8. Miss X says she did not receive the Notice of Rejections. She says she contacted the Council who agreed verbally to reset the process back to the first stage. However, she then received a court order.

9. The Council says Miss X applied to the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) at Northampton County Court to make a statutory declaration. It confirms The TEC has upheld her application which has reinstated her right of appeal.
10. The Council has written to Miss X confirming it has it has 6 months from the date of the TEC’s decision to decide whether to refer the matter to the London Tribunals. If it does, the London Tribunals will contact her with details about the hearing and subsequent outcome. If it does not refer the matter within 6 months the PCN will be automatically cancelled.
11. The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint. Because Miss X applied to the TEC to make a statutory declaration, we no longer retain jurisdiction to investigate her complaint about the Council’s handling of the PCN.

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Final decision

12. I cannot investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is outside our jurisdiction as Ms X has already made a statutory declaration to the TEC.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman