Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a penalty charge notice as Mr X has the right to address this via the court at the Traffic Enforcement Centre.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains he did not receive an initial penalty charge notice (PCN) about an alleged parking contravention, or any response to his representations to the Notice to Owner. Mr X is unhappy that the Council has told him he must now wait for the debt to be registered with the county court and for the Order for Recovery to be sent to him, before he can challenge it further. Mr X says he was not parked illegally and wants the PCN to be cancelled.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
3. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide any fault has not caused significant injustice to the person who complained (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Parliament has put in place a procedure, involving the court at the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC), which Mr X can use to challenge the enforcement of the PCN, once an Order for Recovery has been served.
7. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to follow the statutory procedure, and as such, we will not investigate.
8. As we will not investigate the substantive complaint, we will not investigate Mr X’s associated complaint about issues he has experienced with communicating with the Council. Any fault by the Council in this regard, has not impacted Mr X to a degree that would warrant our involvement.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is reasonable to expect him to follow the statutory procedure and to make his case to the court at the TEC.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman