Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a penalty charge notice. This is because Miss X has used her right of appeal against the penalty charge notice. We cannot separately look at her complaint that the Council failed to reduce the amount of the charge as agreed because Miss X could reasonably have raised the point with the Traffic Penalty Tribunal as part of her appeal. The issue also falls outside our time limit for investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council did not reduce the amount of a penalty charge notice (PCN) to allow her to pay at the discounted rate, as it had agreed to do. She also complains the Council sent an enforcement agent (bailiff) to her property despite her request to stop action while she applied to the High Court to review the Traffic Penalty Tribunal’s decision not to cancel the PCN. She believes the PCN was unfair and says the Council’s actions caused her distress.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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)
5. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT) considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for all areas of England outside London.
6. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

9. The Council issued Miss X a PCN on 30 August 2023. Miss X challenged the PCN with the Council but it dismissed her challenge. It did however agree to reduce the amount of the PCN from £70 to £35 as a gesture of goodwill, provided Miss X paid it by 18 October 2023.
10. Miss X has provided a screenshot dated “17 October” which shows the amount of the PCN as £70. She suggests therefore that the Council did not comply with its agreement to reduce the amount.
11. Miss X did not pay the PCN and instead appealed to the TPT. The TPT refused her appeal and ordered Miss X to pay the PCN at the full rate of £70. Miss X disagrees with the decision and has applied to challenge it by judicial review at the High Court. In the meantime she did not pay, so the Council escalated the case according to the statutory process and instructed bailiffs to recover payment from her.
12. Because Miss X has used her right of appeal against the PCN we cannot investigate any complaint about its issue or validity. It is clear Miss X continues to dispute the PCN and believes it was issued unfairly, but the TPT has considered her appeal and decided not to cancel the PCN and it is not for us to comment on the issue further.
13. While the TPT’s decision makes no reference to the Council’s failure to reduce the amount of the PCN Miss X could reasonably have raised it with the Tribunal as part of her appeal. Any complaint about the issue is also late as Miss X did not complain to us about it until February 2025 and this was more than 15 months after she became aware of the issue. I have seen no good reasons for the delay in bringing the complaint to us and I will not therefore exercise my discretion to investigate it.
14. Although Miss X suggests the Council should have placed a hold on the case and not taken any further action while she sought permission to challenge the TPT’s action there was no requirement for the Council to do this. The PCN remained valid and payable and the Council was therefore entitled to continue action to recover payment from Miss X. We could not therefore say its actions amounted to fault.

Back to top

Final decision

15. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because Miss X has used her right of appeal to the TPT and could reasonably have raised her concerns about the amount of the PCN as part of her appeal.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman