Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs B’s complaint that the Council wrongly issued her with a Penalty Charge Notice for a moving traffic contravention. This is because Mrs B put in an appeal to London Tribunals.

The complaint

1. Mrs B complains the Council wrongly issued her with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for an alleged moving traffic contravention. Mrs B also says London Tribunals scheduled her appeal after the 14 day early payment period had ended so the charge doubled.

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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. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
4. London Tribunals considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for London.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mrs B.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mrs B put in an appeal to London Tribunals against this PCN. This means the restriction to our powers set out at paragraph 3 of this statement applies to this complaint. We have no discretion to investigate Mrs B’s complaint that the PCN should not have been issued. And, Mrs B could have raised her concern about London Tribunals’ delay as part of her appeal.

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Final decision

8. We cannot investigate this complaint because Mrs B appealed to London Tribunals.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman