Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council (24 016 468)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 09 Jan 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about a penalty charge notice. This is because Mr X has appealed to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
The complaint
- The complainant, Mr X, complains about a penalty charge notice (PCN) issued by the Council. He appealed against the PCN to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal but the Tribunal refused his appeal. Mr X says the Tribunal’s decision was based on inaccurate information about the location of his car and he therefore wants the Council to refund his £70 payment.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
- The Traffic Penalty Tribunal considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for all areas of England outside London.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate this complaint because Mr X has used his right of appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. In these circumstances the law does not allow us to consider complaints about the evidence provided by the Council or considered by the Tribunal and we cannot overturn the Tribunal’s decision. The injustice Mr X claims- £70- is also not significant enough to warrant investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman