Westminster City Council (26 007 425)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 28 Jun 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate Mr B’s complaint about a Penalty Charge Notice because he appealed to London Tribunals.
The complaint
- Mr B complains the Council wrongly issued him with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for an alleged parking contravention. Mr B complains the Council failed to respond to his specific point about the signage in this location. Mr B also complains the Council has continued to enforce this PCN despite an acknowledged procedural fault by London Tribunals. Mr B considers the Council should cancel this PCN.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
- London Tribunals considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for London.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr B and London Tribunals’ decision on Mr B’s appeal, which is available online.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr B put in an appeal to London Tribunals against this PCN. The Tribunal decided this PCN was properly issued. This means we cannot investigate Mr B’s complaint that this PCN was wrongly issued by the Council.
- Mr B complains the Tribunal Adjudicator wrongly suggested his appeal may have been AI-generated. But, this comment did not affect the Adjudicator’s clear finding that this PCN was correctly issued.
- And, London Tribunals did not allow Mr B’s request for a review of this decision. So, the Council is not at fault for enforcing this PCN.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate Mr B’s complaint because he appealed to London Tribunals.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman