Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about a penalty charge notice issued by Transport for London because Mr X has used his right of appeal to London Tribunals. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about Transport for London’s handling of his representations against the penalty charge notice because Mr X has applied to the Traffic Enforcement Centre at Northampton County Court to challenge its escalation of the case.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about a penalty charge notice (PCN) issued by Transport for London (TfL) for driving in the ultra low emission zone (ULEZ) without paying the charge. He says his vehicle is registered for the ‘disabled’ tax class and is therefore currently exempt from paying the ULEZ charge. He provided evidence of this to TfL but TfL ignored it and escalated the case to the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) at Northampton County Court.
2. Mr X says the matter has taken up many hours of his time and he wants TfL to pay him £250.

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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 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)
5. The 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.
6. 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. We may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right but cannot investigate if they have already used it. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
7. London Tribunals considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for London.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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Final decision

9. We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because Mr X has used his right to go to the TEC to challenge TfL’s escalation of the case and appealed against the PCN to London Tribunals. The restrictions set out at Paragraphs 4 and 6 therefore apply and we can neither investigate nor recommend a remedy for Mr X’s injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman