Manchester City Council (20 006 727)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 01 Dec 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a parking fine as Mr X can appeal to the parking adjudicator at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about a parking fine.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered what Mr X said in his complaint and I have sent him my draft decision for his comments. Mr X made no further comment.
What I found
- Mr X says he could not pay for a parking ticket as the Council’s ticket machine was out of order. Mr X complains despite this, the Council issued him with a parking fine.
- The Council says that though the machine was out of order, the option to ‘pay by phone’ was available. Mr X says he had no bank cards with him.
Analysis
- The Traffic Management Act 2004, under which the fine was issued, provides an appeal route for motorists to an independent adjudicator. This is the prescribed way to challenge such parking fines and it is reasonable to expect Mr X to make such an appeal. The complaint is therefore outside our legal remit and we will not investigate.
Final decision
- My decision is that the Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because Mr X can appeal to the parking adjudicator against the fine.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman