Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Penalty Charge Notice because it is reasonable to expect Mrs Y to appeal to the Traffic Enforcement Centre and the Traffic Penalty Tribunal about the matter.

The complaint

1. Mrs Y complained the Council failed to respond to her representations against a Penalty Charge Notice and failed to respond to her complaint correspondence.
2. Mrs Y is concerned the penalty amount will have increased significantly for the PCN and she will only learn the amount once the matter is passed to enforcement agents.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
4. 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)
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 another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
6. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for all areas of England outside London.
7. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information Mrs Y and the Council provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. Mrs Y has a right to appeal the PCN further to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT) if she wishes. The TPT can consider how the Council dealt with Mrs Y’s appeal, and whether it followed the correct process in considering her representations. If it finds that it did not consider her representations properly, it can then consider the issues Mrs Y has raised as the reasons why the PCN is either invalid or should not be enforced.
10. Usually, a person must make an appeal to the tribunal within 28 days of a Notice of Rejection to representations being issued. Mrs Y may therefore need to approach the Traffic Enforcement Centre to seek permission to appeal to the TPT after the deadline. However, this would be something which Mrs Y may wish to approach the TPT to confirm.
11. The TPT is usually free in the initial stages and can make reasonable adjustments if necessary. I would therefore consider it reasonable for Mrs Y to use her right of appeal.
12. Further, the tribunal has been set up for the purpose of considering the type of issues Mrs Y has raised and has the power itself to cancel the PCN if warranted. It is therefore better placed than the Ombudsman, who can only ask the Council to consider cancelling the PCN, to consider this complaint. We will therefore not investigate.
13. As we are not investigating the substantive issue, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate how the Council dealt with or responded to Mrs Y’s complaint correspondence. We will not investigate.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mrs Y’s complaint because it is reasonable to expect her to approach the Traffic Enforcement Centre and the Traffic Penalty Tribunal about the matter.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman