Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about a penalty charge notice. This is because it would have been reasonable for Mrs X to use her right of appeal.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about a penalty charge notice (PCN) the Council issued her. She says the Council’s officers were too quick to issue her the PCN after she parked momentarily. She says this practice is intimidating and an unreasonable application of parking regulations.
2. She challenged the PCN with the Council but it refused to cancel it. She wants the Council to reconsider her circumstances and cancel the PCN.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
5. 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)
6. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for all areas of England outside London.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
8. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. If a motorist breaks parking rules, they might receive a fine. This fine is called a PCN. The motorist has 28 days to pay the fine or appeal it if they disagree with it. An appeal at this stage is called an ‘informal challenge’. The fine is usually halved if it is paid within 14 days.
10. If a council rejects an ‘informal challenge’ the motorist can either pay the PCN, often at a discounted rate, or wait for the ‘notice to owner’ to make formal representations against it. If the Council rejects a motorist’s formal representations, the motorist can appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. Any unsuccessful appeal at the formal stages usually requires payment of the full PCN amount.
11. When the Council rejected Mrs X’s informal challenge Mrs X paid the PCN at the discounted rate of £25. She says this is because she could not afford to pay it at the full rate of £50. Because Mrs X has paid the PCN she cannot challenge it through the statutory appeals process. She has however complained to the Council and asked it to cancel the PCN.
12. As set out at Paragraph 5, we do not usually investigate a complaint where someone has a right of appeal. This is because the law says that complaints about such matters fall outside our jurisdiction to investigate. The only exception to this is where we do not consider it would be reasonable to expect the person to appeal.
13. The PCN statutory appeals process is free, relatively informal and simple to use. I acknowledge there is some financial risk involved in appealing the PCN and an unsuccessful appeal may have resulted in Mrs X paying the full rate. However, the appeals process is set out in law and applies to everyone using it. It would have been the appropriate route to challenge the PCN and I have seen nothing to show it would not have been reasonable for Mrs X to use it. The risk of paying the full rate does not provide sufficient grounds to exercise our discretion to investigate this complaint.
14. It is in any event unlikely we would investigate Mrs X’s complaint even if we decided it was not reasonable for her to use the statutory appeals process. By not paying to park in the car park Mrs X ran the risk she would receive a PCN and the Council was under no obligation to cancel it simply because she felt it was unfair. Mrs X paid the PCN at the discounted rate of £25 and this amount is not significant enough to warrant investigation.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it would have been reasonable for her to use her right of appeal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman