Bath and North East Somerset Council (25 022 967)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 26 Jan 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate Mr B’s complaint that he was wrongly issued with a Penalty Charge Notice for an alleged parking contravention. This is because Mr B appealed to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
The complaint
- Mr B complains the Council wrongly issued him with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for an alleged parking contravention. Mr B says the Council was wrong to reject his representations and his appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal was dismissed. Mr B says the Council has now passed the PCN to an enforcement agency without a court judgement.
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 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)
- The Traffic Penalty Tribunal considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for all areas of England outside London.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr B and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr B challenged this PCN by putting in an appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. This is the appropriate route to challenge a PCN. The Tribunal is independent of the Council and it is the role of the Tribunal to decide whether a PCN was correctly issued.
- Because Mr B used this right of appeal this means we cannot investigate his complaint that this PCN should not have been issued.
- The law allows a local authority to enforce a PCN debt by instructing enforcement agents. This is not the same process as a county court judgement for a money debt. The Council has recently explained this process to Mr B and told him his options.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate Mr B’s complaint because he appealed to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman