Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about penalty charge notices issued by the Council for parking contraventions. The complainant had a right of appeal against the penalty charge notices to a tribunal.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mrs B, complained because the Council is taking recovery action on several penalty charge notices for parking contraventions. Mrs B says the Council should not have issued the penalty charge notices because it failed to issue her with a resident’s parking permit.

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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. It says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has or had a right of 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)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered what Mrs B said in her complaint and background information provided by the Council.

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What I found

Background

4. The Council enforces parking restrictions and takes recovery action using procedures set out in the Traffic Management Act 2004 and associated Regulations. Councils and motorists must follow these procedures although councils have discretion to stop enforcement or recovery action if they believe there are good reasons to do so.

Summary of events

5. The Council issued the penalty charge notices to Mrs B because it believed she had parked without a valid resident’s parking permit. Mrs B says she did this because the Council had failed to renew her permit.
6. It does not appear Mrs B paid any of the penalty charges or made formal representations to the Council. For this reason, the Council has continued recovery action and registered the unpaid penalty charges as a debt with the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) at Northampton County Court. This allows the Council to use bailiffs to recover the unpaid penalty charges, court costs and bailiffs’ fees from Mrs B.

Analysis

7. While it is now too late for her to do so, Mrs B had a right of appeal against each penalty charge notice to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT) which is a statutory tribunal. An appeal to the TPT is free and relatively easy to use. It is also the way in which Parliament expects people to contest a penalty charge notice. For these reasons, the restriction I describe in paragraph 2 would generally apply.
8. Mrs B could have explained about her permit to an adjudicator at the TPT. If persuaded by what Mrs B said, the adjudicator could have directed the Council to reconsider whether it should exercise discretion to cancel the penalty charge notice.

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Final decision

9. I have decided we will not investigate this complaint. This is because I have seen no exceptional reason Mrs B could not have appealed to the TPT. The restriction on our jurisdiction I describe in paragraph 2 applies.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman