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

The complaint

1. X says the Council failed to properly respond to their representations about a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for an alleged traffic contravention. X also complains about how the Council dealt with their complaints about this matter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. 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)
4. London Tribunals considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for London, and the Traffic Penalty Tribunal for the rest of England.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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Assessment

6. X paid the PCN but raised a complaint about the contents of the notice of rejection sent by the Council.
7. I will not investigate X’s complaint. If X believed the Council had not properly considered their formal representations when issuing its notice of rejection, it would have been reasonable for X to have used the representations and appeals procedure available to them.
8. Any injustice caused to X by the way the Council dealt with this matter, separable from the PCN itself, is not significant enough to warrant our further involvement. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman