Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling and escalation of a penalty charge notice. This is because Mr X has taken the matter to the Traffic Enforcement Centre at Northampton County Court.

The complaint

1. In short, Mr X complains about receiving a penalty charge notice (PCN) despite believing he had updated his parking permit account successfully with details of his replacement vehicle. He complains the Council cancelled one penalty charge notice but refused to the cancel the remaining one.
2. Mr X would like the Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) cancelled.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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. London Tribunals considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for London.
6. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. We may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court but cannot investigate if the person has already taken the matter to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
7. 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

8. I considered information provided by Mr X, and the Council.
9. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

The statutory process

10. There is a set procedure councils must follow when pursuing PCNs for parking contraventions and handling appeals against them. When a council issues a PCN the motorist has 28 days to pay the penalty charge or appeal; appeals at this stage are known as ‘informal challenges’.
11. If the motorist submits an informal challenge to a PCN and the Council decides not to accept them, it will write to the motorist and explain why. If the motorist accepts the Council’s reasons they may pay the PCN; if not, they may wait for a ‘notice to owner’. This provides a further opportunity for the owner of the vehicle to pay the charge or make ‘formal representations’ against the PCN. If the council rejects the motorist’s formal representations the motorist may appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
12. If the motorist does not pay or make formal representations the council will issue a charge certificate, increasing the amount payable by 50%. It may then apply to the TEC at Northampton County Court to register the debt, before instructing enforcement agents (bailiffs) to recover it.

Mr X’s case

13. The Council says it received no informal or formal challenge from Mr X concerning this PCN. It says it escalated the case to the ‘Order of Recovery’ stage at which point Mr X filed a witness statement at the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC).
14. The Council reports Mr X’s appeal - that the Council failed to respond to his representations - was accepted by the TEC. The TEC cancelled the Charge Certificate and revoked the Order of Recovery effectively taking Mr X back to the previous stage of the process.
15. The Council advises it wrote to Mr X to say he had 14 days to pay the PCN. It says Mr X did not pay so the Council referred the case back to London Tribunals.
16. Mr X says the Council offering statutory appeals does not address the original fault that led to the PCN being issued. He is concerned the Council apparently admitted fault when it cancelled the other PCN but has refused to cancel this one.
17. We cannot investigate. As Mr X applied to the TEC to challenge the Council’s escalation of the case, we have no powers to consider the issue.

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Final decision

18. We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because Mr X has used the alternative remedy available to him to challenge the Council’s escalation of the PCN.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman