London Borough of Lambeth (25 020 619)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 27 Mar 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s enforcement of a traffic penalty charge notice. This is because the complainant asked the court to consider her case and the matter is now no longer within our remit.
The complaint
- Ms X complains the Council failed to provide a response to her appeal against a traffic penalty charge notice (PCN) it issued to her, wrongly enforced the PCN and gave incorrect information to the court at the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC), when Ms X asked it to consider her case. Ms X says this caused her undue worry, stress and financial hardship.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended.
- We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended).
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Parliament has provided a process whereby motorists can ask the court at the TEC to consider their case when they claim something went wrong in the enforcement of a PCN, such as in this case, that a notice of rejection of an appeal was not received.
- Ms X exercised this right and as per paragraph three, we no longer have any legal right to investigate.
- As per paragraph four, we cannot investigate information the Council provided to this court process.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is no longer within our legal remit, since Ms X asked the court at the TEC to consider her case and we cannot investigate what took place during court proceedings.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman