Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a Penalty Charge Notice for an alleged parking contravention. It would be reasonable to expect the complainant to use the statutory representations and appeals procedure.

The complaint

1. X says the Authority has wrongly issued a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) and did not properly consider their representations about the notice. X also said they could not appeal the matter with the Tribunal because it never acknowledged their requests for them to attend in person.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has 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 use this right. If the person has already appealed we have no power to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
3. 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

4. I considered information from the complainant and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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Final decision

5. We will not investigate this complaint because only the Tribunal can decide if a PCN is not valid and so it would be reasonable for the complainant to use the appeals procedure and apply to the TEC to attempt to regain their appeal rights.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman