Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about a Penalty Charge Notice because Miss Y has already started court action about the matter.

The complaint

1. Miss Y complained the Council dealt with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) poorly, including threatening to send bailiffs to her parents address and not responding to her representations against the PCN. She also complained about how her complaint was handled by the Council.
2. Miss Y says the matter had caused her distress and she has had to spend considerable time dealing with the matter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal or a government minister or started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6), as amended)
4. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information Miss Y provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Council issued a PCN to Miss Y after she drove in the area’s Clean Air Zone without making payment. Miss Y says she entered the zone mistakenly before turning around and leaving it as soon as she was able. After receiving the PCN Miss Y says she submitted representations to the Council against the PCN, but did not receive a response to this. She says the next contact was again to her parents address, where the vehicle was registered to and not her own address despite her providing this to the Council.
7. After Miss Y says she had further issues, she complained to the Council. She says the response was poor and did not address her complaint properly. She then submitted a witness statement to the Traffic Enforcement Centre, based at Northampton County Court to try to have the charge certificate for the penalty removed in November 2023. She also approached us.

Analysis

8. If Miss Y is successful in her application to the TEC, she will have a right to appeal the PCN further to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal if she wishes. The Tribunal can consider how the Council dealt with her representations, and whether it followed the correct process. If it finds that it did not consider her representations properly, it can then consider the issues Miss Y has raised as the reasons why the PCN is either invalid or should not be enforced.
9. As Miss Y has already begun court proceedings about the PCN, we do not have the power to investigate her complaint about the PCN. Further, if successful at the TEC, Miss Y can reasonably be expected to use her right to appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, as it is largely free to use and can make reasonable adjustments if necessary. Consequently, we cannot investigate this complaint.
10. As we cannot investigate the substantive matter, it is not a good use of public funds to investigate how the Council dealt with Miss Y’s complaint so we will not investigate.

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Final decision

11. We cannot investigate Miss Y’s complaint because Miss Y has already started court action about the matter.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman