London Borough of Brent (25 021 605)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 18 Mar 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about a Penalty Charge Notice for an alleged parking contravention. The complainant has used the statutory representations and appeals procedure.
The complaint
- Mrs X complains the Council failed to serve her with a Notice of Rejection, to her appeal against a parking penalty charge notice (PCN), within the statutory time frame of 56 days. As such, Mrs X considers the Council should refund the £265 she paid it to release her vehicle and cancel the PCN.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes limits on what we can investigate.
- We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
- London Tribunals considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for London, and the Traffic Penalty Tribunal for the rest of England.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information from the complainant and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Parliament has provided an appeal mechanism for motorists to challenge PCNs. One of the appeal grounds for an appeal is ‘procedural impropriety’. This is what Mrs X alleges, and she could have raised this matter as part of the appeal she made against the parking PCN to London Tribunals. We are not another level of appeal nor are we empowered to make the decisions the London Tribunals can. As such, we cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint because, in doing so, we would overlap with the role of the London Tribunals to decide on the issue which could have been referred to it to resolve. The restriction in paragraph three above applies.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate this complaint because the complainant has already used the representations and appeals procedure.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman