Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about Transport for London’s road user charging schemes. The complaint is late and Mr X’s injustice stems from penalty charge notices which were appealable. It is unlikely we would find fault in the time limit for payment of the charges and we cannot say Transport for London must alter the way it runs the schemes.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains about Transport for London’s road user charging schemes which only allow a motorist to make payment for a short period after incursion into the congestion charge, low emission and ultra-low emission zones. He has received fines totalling £320 for not paying the relevant charges.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. 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)
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 reviewed Mr X’s complaint, shared my draft decision with him and invited his comments.

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What I found

7. Mr X received several penalty charge notices (PCNs) from Transport for London (TfL) for entering charging zones and not paying the relevant charges.
8. TfL operates the congestion charge zone, low emission zone and ultra-low emission zone. Charging Orders set out the relevant charges for entering the zones and the methods and time limits for payment. They also allow TfL to issue PCNs to motorists who enter the zones and do not pay in time.
9. Mr X complains TfL’s system does not allow enough time for motorists to pay the charges and does not remind them when they do not. He believes it should adopt an incremental approach allowing motorists more time to pay increased charges before TfL issues a PCN for non-payment.
10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. Mr X says he complained to TfL about this issue in November 2018 but he did not refer his complaint to us until January 2020. It is therefore late. In addition, the injustice Mr X claims stems from the PCNs issued by TfL and if Mr X felt these were invalid it would have been reasonable for him to appeal.
11. While Mr X would like TfL to operate the schemes differently this is not evidence of fault and there is no requirement for it to follow Mr X’s suggestion. The congestion charge and low emission zones have been in operation for more than 10 years and although the ultra-low emission zone is more recent it follows the same approach. It is not for the Ombudsman to specify how TfL should run the schemes and we cannot say it must amend the charging orders to allow more time for payment. We cannot therefore achieve the outcome Mr X wants.

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Final decision

12. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late, it is unlikely we would find fault by TfL and we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman