Oxford City Council (25 010 715)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 09 Sep 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a parking penalty charge notice as Mrs X had the right to make an appeal to the independent tribunal contesting it.
The complaint
- Mrs X has a resident’s parking permit but complains about a penalty charge notice (PCN) the Council issued to her for parking in a bay opposite her home where her permit was not valid. Mrs X says she was not advised when she purchased her permit about this. Mrs X says this has impacted on her financially and she wants the Council to cancel the PCN and provide guidance to residents about permit requirements before issuing PCNs.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Parliament has provided an appeal mechanism by which Mrs X could have challenged the PCN, first with representations and appeal to the Council and then by way of an appeal to an independent tribunal, the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT). We are not another level of appeal and cannot make the decisions of the TPT. It is reasonable therefore to expect Mrs X to have used the appeal procedure available to her and we will not investigate.
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s broader concerns about the permit system in pace, as I do not consider it would be in the public interest to do. The specific injustice to Mrs X was the PCN and this could have been addressed via the appeal procedure, as already described.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is reasonable to expect her to have appealed the PCN to the TPT.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman