London Borough of Harrow (23 012 392)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 30 Nov 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to respond to her appeal against a penalty charge notice. This is because it would be reasonable for Miss X to apply to the Traffic Enforcement Centre to challenge the Council’s escalation of the case.
The complaint
- The complainant, Miss X, complains the Council failed to respond to her appeal against a penalty charge notice (PCN). She also complains it failed to respond to her complaint about the matter.
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 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)
- The Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) is part of Northampton County Court. It considers applications from local authorities to pursue payment of unpaid PCNs and from motorists to challenge local authorities’ pursuit of unpaid PCNs.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Miss X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Because Miss X did not receive the Council’s correspondence about the PCN she may apply to the TEC to challenge the Council’s escalation of the case. She can do this by applying to make a late witness statement.
- If the TEC accepts Miss X’s application it may order the Council to take the process back to an earlier stage, removing the basis for any additional fees and surcharges. If the TEC refuses Miss X’s application Miss X may apply for a review of its decision.
- We consider it would be reasonable for Miss X to apply to the TEC to consider the matter and we will not therefore exercise our discretion to investigate the complaint further.
- Miss X is also unhappy with the Council’s failure to respond to her 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.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint. This is because it would be reasonable for Miss X to apply to the TEC to make a late witness statement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman