The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s refusal to cancel a Penalty Charge Notice. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. The complainant h ad a right of appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, and it would have been reasonable for him to use this.
The complaint
The complainant, I shall call Mr X says the Council’s website was faulty and failed to issue a parking voucher when he attempted to buy one for a contractor working for him.
He says the Council issued a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) which he felt obliged to pay.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (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 X.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaints about the Council issuing him with the PCN. It would have been reasonable for him to use this.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman