Darlington Borough Council (26 000 967)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 20 May 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the enforcement of Penalty Charge Notices. It is reasonable to expect the complainant to apply to the Traffic Enforcement Centre to seek to regain their appeal rights, and then to appeal to a tribunal.
The complaint
- Mr X says the Council failed to follow the correct procedure for issuing Penalty Charge Notices (PCN) and denied him the right to appeal against the notices. Mr X says the matter has wrongly progressed through the enforcement procedure without human consideration. He says the Council failed to apply reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010.
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 normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court or use 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 go to court or appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(6)(a) and (c), as amended)
- London Tribunals considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for London, and the Traffic Penalty Tribunal for the rest of England. The Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC), part of the county court, considers applications to set the PCN process back where there has been procedural fault.
- We cannot find that an organisation has breached the Equality Act. However, we can find an organisation at fault for failing to take account of its duties under the Equality Act.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information from the complainant and the Council, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint because it is reasonable to expect Mr X to apply to the Traffic Enforcement Centre to regain his appeal rights and he may then appeal if the TEC agrees. We are also unlikely to find the Council at fault for failing to take account of its duties under the Equality Act as correspondence was sent to Mr X in writing.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman