Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the enforcement of a Penalty Charge Notice. This is because the complainant has submitted an Out of Time Witness Statement to the Traffic Enforcement Centre.

The complaint

1. Miss X says the Council failed to follow the correct procedure for a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) and denied her right to appeal against it. She says the matter has wrongly progressed through the enforcement procedure.
2. She says Enforcement Agents attending her home caused her distress and embarrassment.
3. She complains that the Council did not reply to her correspondence, including complaints. She also says it delayed responding to her appeal for around 6 months, and then incorrectly stated it had already replied.
4. She would like the Council to:

• Stop all enforcement action
• Confirm the current legal status of the PCN in writing
• Reissue the PCN properly so she has the opportunity to respond fairly
• Explain why it did not respond to her correspondence
• Apologise for the distress, embarrassment and inconvenience caused
• Consider compensation

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes limits on what we can investigate.
6. 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)
7. The courts have said that where someone has sought a remedy by way of proceedings in any court of law, we cannot investigate. This is the case even if the appeal did not or could not provide a complete remedy for all the injustice claimed. (R v The Commissioner for Local Administration ex parte PH (1999) EHCA Civ 916)
8. 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.

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered information from the complainant and the Council, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

10. In 2024, the Council issued Miss X a penalty charge notice. Miss X made representations against the notice. Miss X’s representations were not accepted by the Council. As the Council did not receive any representations or payment following this, the matter progressed through the statutory enforcement process. This included registering the debt with the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) and referring the matter to enforcement agents.
11. A witness statement can be made to the TEC. If this is accepted the TEC may tell the Council to go back to an earlier stage which could reinstate appeal rights.
12. In this case, Miss X made an out of time witness statement. Following this, the Council reissued the notice to owner. Miss X has since made a second witness statement. We have no power to investigate a complaint where a person has already taken the matter to court. Therefore, Miss X’s complaint about the PCN is outside our jurisdiction.
13. Miss X says the Council continued to pursue her after the TEC told her the order of recovery had been revoked. However, this would not have cancelled the PCN. As the Council did not receive any representations or payment after the notice to owner was issued for a second time the matter progressed again through the enforcement process.
14. 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

15. We will not investigate this complaint because the complainant has submitted an Out of Time Witness Statement to the Traffic Enforcement Centre.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman