Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about a penalty charge notice issued by the Council for a moving traffic contravention and subsequent action taken by bailiffs on behalf of the Council. The law provides a right of appeal to a tribunal against the charge and Ms X has used this right.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains she is unhappy the Council will not accept her payment for the original penalty charge notice (PCN) and that she did not receive letters sent to her about the moving traffic contravention before it had reached court and bailiffs were subsequently appointed.
2. Ms X further complains she is suffering distress and illness and would like the Council to retract the debt from bailiffs or allow her to pay the amount of the original charge.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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 considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The Council enforces moving traffic contraventions 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 the discretion to stop enforcement or recovery action if they believe there are good reasons to do so.
8. Ms X did not pay the penalty charge notice or make any representation to the Council. For this reason, the Council continued recovery action and registered the unpaid charge as a debt. This allowed the Council to use bailiffs to recover the unpaid penalty charge and associated costs from Ms X.
9. Ms X had the right of appeal against the PCN to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT) which is a statutory tribunal. Ms X made a late statutory declaration to the TPT which was contested by the Council and then subsequently refused. Ms X could have made a further appeal against the case by submitting an appeal, commonly known as an N244, but no appeal of this kind has been lodged.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because she has exercised her right to submit a late appeal to the TPT and this was turned down. The restriction on our jurisdiction I describe in paragraph 2 applies.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman