Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about a moving traffic penalty charge notice as Mr X appealed against it to the independent tribunal and the matter is now no longer within our remit. Any fault by the Council in dealing with Mr X’s subsequent complaint did not cause him a level of injustice that would warrant our further involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council failed to cancel a penalty charge notice (PCN) it issued to him for driving into a restricted zone, when Mr X says the Council had no evidence to support this. Mr X says he was forced to appeal to London Tribunals against the PCN where his appeal was upheld as the Council provided no appeal case. Mr X is unhappy that when he complained to the Council, it maintained the PCN had been correctly issued. Mr X seeks a compensation payment for the time he spent on the matter and the stress caused.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal or a government minister or started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6), as amended)
3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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 or continue an investigation if we decide any alleged fault has not caused a significant injustice to the person who complained. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. As per paragraph two, as Mr X appealed against the PCN to London Tribunals (LT), we no longer have any remit to investigate. Mr X did have the right to ask LT to make a costs award for his expenses in making the appeal.
7. I recognise Mr X is unhappy with the Council’s response to the complaint he made to it after winning his appeal. However, we will not investigate as any injustice caused to Mr X from alleged Council fault in this regard is not sufficient to justify our further involvement.

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Final decision

8. We cannot investigate the PCN issued to Mr X because we have no legal remit to do so after Mr X appealed it to LT. The Council’s complaint handling does not give rise to a level of injustice to Mr X to justify our further involvement. We will not therefore investigate this aspect of the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman