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 have used the statutory representations and appeals procedure.

The complaint

1. X says the Council has wrongly issued a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for an alleged traffic contravention. X says they tried to change their vehicle details on the application used by the Council but was unable to and subsequently received a PCN.
2. X wants the PCN to be cancelled and for changes to be made to the application to allow users to change their vehicle online.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes limits on what we can investigate.
4. 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)
5. London Tribunals considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for London, and the Traffic Penalty Tribunal for the rest of England.
6. 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 we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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Assessment

8. I will not investigate X’s complaint about the issuing of the PCN. This is because it is reasonable to have expected them to have used the representation and appeals procedure to challenge the PCN.
9. I will not investigate X’s concerns about the application, because we cannot achieve the outcome they seek. It is for the Council, not the Ombudsman, to manage how changes to vehicle ownership are made, and the Council has said that it does not allow users to change their details through the application to avoid fraud. We have no justification to ask the Council to make the changes X wants.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint because it would be reasonable for the complainant to have used the representations and appeals procedure.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman