Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about Transport for London’s handling of a penalty charge notice. This is because it would be reasonable for Miss X to apply to the Traffic Enforcement Centre to challenge the authority’s escalation of the case.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss X, complains about Transport for London’s (TfL’s) handling of a penalty charge notice (PCN). She says it has twice issued the PCN and escalated the case without her receiving the required written notices and is unhappy she did not have the opportunity to pay the original charge of £12.50.

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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. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. We may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court but cannot investigate if the person has already been to court. . (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
4. 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.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. TfL issued Miss X a PCN for driving in the ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) without paying the charge in October 2024. She says she did not receive the PCN and only became aware of it later. She challenged TfL’s escalation of the case by applying to the TEC to make a late statutory declaration and the TEC accepted her application, meaning TfL had to take the process back to the initial stage.
7. TfL then reissued the PCN but again Miss X did not receive it. She has recently received correspondence from TfL’s enforcement agents (bailiffs) demanding she pay £355 and questions how she could pay the charge when she was unaware TfL had reissued the PCN.

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Final decision

8. We cannot investigate any complaint about the initial escalation of the PCN because Miss X has challenged this at court.
9. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about TfL’s reissue and escalation of the PCN because it would be reasonable for her to apply to the TEC to challenge the escalation of the case again. I have seen no good reasons why Miss X could not follow the process and I have therefore decided not to exercise my discretion to investigate the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman