Summary: We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her representations against a penalty charge notice. This is because Ms X has already sought a remedy for the issue at court.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains she did not receive the Council’s rejection of her representations against a penalty charge notice (PCN) within 56 days. She says that as a result she missed her opportunity to appeal to London Tribunals. She believes the Council should have cancelled the PCN and wants the Council to refund her payment and pay her compensation.

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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 started court action about the matter. (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 Ms X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. In certain circumstances where councils do not respond to a motorist’s representations against a PCN in 56 days they must cancel the PCN and are not permitted to pursue the matter further. But this only applies where the council has not responded within the 56-day period; it does not apply where the council responded but the motorist did not receive the response.
8. Where the motorist did not receive a response- for whatever reason- they may apply to the TEC to take the process back to an earlier stage. Ms X followed this process and the TEC accepted her application and ordered the Council to cancel its escalation of the case, which meant the process started again from the beginning. Ms X has now paid the PCN but believes the Council should cancel the PCN and refund her payment.
9. Because Ms X has taken the matter to the TEC the exclusion set out at Paragraph 3 applies. We do not therefore have jurisdiction to investigate the matter further.
10. I would however confirm that there would be no basis for us to say the Council should cancel the PCN even if we could investigate. This is because the Council has provided evidence to show it responded to Ms X’s representations within 56 days and the requirement to cancel the PCN would not therefore apply. I do not doubt that Ms X did not receive the Council’s response within this period but she has already sought a remedy for this with the TEC.

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Final decision

11. We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because Ms X has taken the matter to the TEC, which is part of Northampton County Court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman