Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council unfairly issued him with six Penalty Charge Notices. Mr X used his right of appeal to a tribunal, so we have no power to investigate.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s handling of six Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs). He says the Council:
1. failed to consider the lack of clear advance signage about the new road restriction;
2. sent him multiple PCNs over consecutive days, but failed to exercise discretion over the repeated offences in a short time that occurred due to confusion;
3. gave confusing information about two of the PCNs, which initially appeared as “not issued” on its website, but this changed once Mr X made an appeal; and,
4. failed to consider his personal circumstances (financial hardship and health issues) before proceeding with enforcement action.

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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. London Tribunals considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for London.
5. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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 or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mr X appealed to the Tribunal about the PCNs. An independent adjudicator dismissed his case. I cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint so far as it concerns the validity of the PCNs because the Tribunal is the proper route for challenging a PCN and Mr X has already used that process.
9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the error on the Council’s website concerning two of the PCNs. Mr X was still able to appeal to the Tribunal about the PCNs, meaning he did not experience significant injustice.
10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s enforcement action following the Tribunal decision. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify investigating. The Council was allowed to take the action complained of and is not obliged to offer a payment plan.

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Final decision

11. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council unfairly issued him with six Penalty Charge Notices. Mr X used his right of appeal to a tribunal, so we have no power to investigate.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman