London Borough of Merton (22 015 088)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 09 Feb 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to issue the complainant with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN). This is because the complainant has a right of appeal to London Tribunals, and it is reasonable to expect him to do this.
The complaint
- In summary, Mr X complains about the Council’s decision to issue him with a PCN. He says the PCN was wrongly issued as he had a valid permit.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- The Act 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)
- London Tribunals (previously known as the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service) considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for London.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council responded to Mr X’s representations. It wrote that Mr X was issued with a PCN as its records showed his daily permit was bought after the PCN was issued. It extended the deadline for him to pay at the discounted rate but did not cancel the PCN. And it informed him of the next stages in the process.
- Mr X says the Council has not addressed all the points in his appeal including the fact he finds the parking app often crashes and does not work properly. And that he is owed a refund from paying twice on another occasion due to the parking app failures.
- Parliament has laid down a detailed process allowing individuals the right to challenge receiving PCNs from the Council. If Mr X wishes to challenge the PCN he can now wait for the Council to send him the Notice to Owner document and then formally appeal to London Tribunals.
- The process does not allow for Mr X to complain to the Council and the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman can check if the Council responded to Mr X’s representations, and I note in this case it did. So there are no grounds for the Ombudsman to intervene.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is reasonable for him to complain to London Tribunals.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman