Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about a penalty charge notice issued by the Council. This is because it would have been reasonable for Ms X to appeal.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Ms X, complains about a penalty charge notice (PCN) issued by the Council. She also complains about the Council’s handling of her complaint about the PCN and about the appeals process.

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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. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for all areas of England outside London.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I reviewed Ms X’s complaint and the Council’s response. I shared my draft decision with Ms X and invited her comments.

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What I found

6. The Council issued Ms X a PCN for a parking contravention in December 2019.
7. There is a set procedure councils must follow when pursuing PCNs for parking contraventions and handling appeals against them. When a council issues a PCN the motorist has 28 days to pay the penalty charge or appeal; appeals at this stage are known as ‘informal challenges’. For the first 14 days the motorist may pay at a discounted rate of 50% of the full fine.
8. If the motorist submits an informal challenge to a PCN and the Council decides not to accept them, it will write to the motorist and explain why. If the motorist accepts the Council’s reasons they may pay the PCN; if not, they may wait for a ‘notice to owner’. This provides a further opportunity for the owner of the vehicle to pay the charge or make ‘formal representations’ against the PCN. If the council rejects the motorist’s formal representations the motorist may appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
9. Ms X informally challenged the PCN and does not accept the Council’s evidence of the contravention. But the Council refused her challenge and Ms X paid the PCN at the discounted rate of £25. Ms X believes the Council should have cancelled the PCN and is unhappy she could not pay at the discounted rate and appeal.
10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. If Ms X disputed the PCN it would have been reasonable for her to wait for the notice to owner and appeal. The appeals process is a statutory process and it is not fault for the Council to offer the discounted rate only for the first 14 days after the issue of the PCN; it is intended to provide an incentive for motorists to pay and there is no right in law to pay and appeal. The amount of Ms X’s payment is also not significant enough to warrant further investigation by the Ombudsman.
11. Ms X is also unhappy with the way the Council has dealt with her complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.

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Final decision

12. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it would have been reasonable for Ms X to appeal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman