Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a penalty charge notice as the complainant had the right to ask the Traffic Enforcement Centre, part of the county court system, to consider her case.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council failed to deal with her appeal against a parking penalty charge notice (PCN) it issued to her or the complaint she subsequently made. Miss X says the Council was belittling in its responses and dealing with the matter has been stressful and upsetting for her as a disabled person. Miss X would like an apology from the Council and a refund of the £35 PCN she paid.

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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. We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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Background

6. The Council wrote to Miss X to say it had not responded to her formal appeal as it said she had sent it to a ‘no-reply’ email address. In its letter, the Council set out why it did not consider the cancelling of the PCN was warranted. It advised it would reset the PCN to the discounted amount of £35, should Miss X wish to pay. It explained the next step would be for an Order for Recovery to be sent to Miss X along with a witness statement.
7. Miss X says she sent her appeal to an active email address but received no response and has received no response to the complaint she made. Miss X says it has been upsetting and stressful dealing with this matter. Miss X paid the £35 PCN but would now like a refund and an apology from the Council.

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My assessment

8. Parliament has provided a procedure by which Miss X could have continued to challenge the PCN, via making a witness statement to the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) which is part of the county court system. As this is the process provided in law, I consider it is reasonable to expect Miss X to have followed it, rather than paying the PCN.
9. I recognise that Miss X remains dissatisfied that the Council has not responded to her complaint, but we would not investigate this as a stand-alone matter, as it does not represent a level of injustice that would justify our further involvement.
10. For these reasons, we will not investigate.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because she had the right to ask the court at the TEC to consider her case, and it would not be a good use of our limited resources to investigate the Council’s complaint handling in isolation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman