Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (26 005 501)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 08 Jun 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the enforcement of a Penalty Charge Notice. This is because it was reasonable to expect Mr B to apply to the Traffic Enforcement Centre to seek to regain his appeal rights.
The complaint
- Mr B says he put in representations against a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) but did not receive a response before the Council later issued a charge certificate. Mr B says he found out the Council did not receive his representations due to a minor error he made when typing the Council’s email address. Mr B says the Council should have used its discretion to accept his representations and allow him the opportunity to put in an appeal to London Tribunals
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.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information from Mr B and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Final decision
- Mr B could have applied to the Traffic Enforcement Centre to set the process back and regain his appeal rights. This is the process for a motorist to use if a local authority has progressed a PCN and they did not get a response to their representations. I find it was reasonable for Mr B to do this and the Council told him about this process. So, we will not investigate this complaint.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman