Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about a penalty charge notice issued by the Council. This is because Mr X used his right of appeal to a tribunal, and investigating the process used by the Council would overlap with the role of the tribunal.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s decision making in regard to a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) it issued to him.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. 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)
4. London Tribunals considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for London.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Mr X appealed against the PCN to the London Tribunals, which refused the appeal. As per paragraph three, we no longer have any remit to investigate the PCN.
8. Mr X has raised concerns about the Council’s process in regard to its handling of the PCN. We cannot investigate this separately because doing so would overlap with the role of the tribunal. Even if there was something we could separate from the role of the tribunal we would not. This is because the substantive injustice is to Mr X was the PCN, any additional injustice is not significant enough to warrant investigation by the Ombudsman.
9. I will not investigate how the Council dealt with Mr X’s complaint about these matters. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because doing so would overlap with the role of London Tribunals.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman