London Borough of Lambeth (26 011 973)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 09 Aug 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s escalation of a penalty charge notice. This is because Miss X has applied to the Traffic Enforcement Centre at Northampton County Court to take the process back to an earlier stage.
The complaint
- Miss X complains about the Council’s handling of a penalty charge notice (PCN). She says the Council told her the case was on hold in May 2026 but it then registered the unpaid PCN as a debt with the court.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. We may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court but cannot investigate if the person has already been to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
- The Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) is part of Northampton County Court. It considers applications from local authorities to pursue payment of unpaid PCNs and from motorists to challenge local authorities’ pursuit of unpaid PCNs.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Miss X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Miss X claims injustice from the Council’s escalation of the case after telling her it was on hold. She sought a remedy for this injustice from the TEC, which accepted her application and put the case back to an earlier stage.
- Because Miss X has used the process available to her to challenge the Council’s escalation of the case the exclusion set out at Paragraph 3 applies. We cannot therefore investigate the matter further or recommend any further remedy for her.
- Miss X is also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with her complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because Miss X has already sought a remedy for the issue with the TEC.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman