Summary: We cannot investigate Mr B’s complaint that a charge he has to pay for a road charging contravention is too high. This is because Mr B could have raised this matter as part of his appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains the Council has issued him with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for £120 for driving in a clean air zone without paying the fee. Mr B says this is far too much particularly because the clean air zone charge is only £9.

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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. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for all areas of England outside London.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Mr B put in an appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal against this PCN. Mr B could have asked the Adjudicator to consider the amount of the charge as part of his appeal. This is because the grounds for appeal for challenging a road charging PCN include that the penalty charge exceeded the amount applicable in the circumstances of the case. The tribunal had the power to decide this matter.
8. So, we cannot investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

9. We cannot investigate Mr B’s complaint because he could have raised this matter as part of his appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman