Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a penalty charge notice issued by the Council. This is because the complaint is late and it would have been reasonable for Mr X to challenge the Council’s escalation of the case by withholding payment and making a late witness statement/statutory declaration to the court.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains he did not receive the Council’s penalty charge notice (PCN) and only found out about it once the Council had escalated the case and increased the amount of the penalty charge to £195.

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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.
3. 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)
4. The Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) is part of Northampton County Court. It considers applications from local authorities to pursue payment of unpaid PCNs. Where a motorist believes the local authority has not followed the proper process to pursue payment they may ask the TEC to file a witness statement or statutory declaration. If it accepts the application the TEC has the power to take a PCN back to an earlier stage, reinstating the motorist's right of appeal and removing the basis for any surcharges added by the local authority and its enforcement agents (bailiffs).
5. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. The Council issued the PCN in March 2022 and Mr X’s emails to the Council shows he was aware about it by 28 April 2022. But he did not complain to us about the matter until September 2023. The complaint is therefore more than four months late.
9. However, even if the complaint was in-time we would not investigate it. This is because the Council advised Mr X twice that if he wished to challenge its escalation of the case he should not pay; rather he should wait for the next stage of the process and made a witness statement/statutory declaration to the TEC. The Council advised Mr X about this process twice and explained that he would only be able to follow the process if he did not pay. But Mr X chose not to follow the process and paid the PCN. He therefore lost the right to challenge the Council’s escalation of the PCN.
10. Mr X is also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with his complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because it would have been reasonable for Mr X to wait for the Council to escalate the case and apply to the TEC to challenge the process. The complaint is also late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman