The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of his appeal against a penalty charge notice. This is because Mr X has used his right of appeal to London Tribunals and we cannot consider any complaint about the Council’s conduct during the appeal process.
The complaint
The complainant, Mr X, complains about the Council’s issue of a penalty charge notice (PCN) and its conduct as part of his appeal against it. He says the Council took too long to issue the PCN, submitted evidence from after the event which was of poor quality and provided an excessive volume of evidence, much of which he considered irrelevant.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (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 and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Because Mr X has used his right of appeal to London Tribunals we have no jurisdiction to consider any complaint about the PCN or the Council’s conduct in dealing with his appeal. It was for London Tribunals to decide whether the Council’s evidence was admissible and it decided it was.
Final decision
We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because Mr X has used his right of appeal to London Tribunals and we cannot separately investigate the Council’s conduct during the appeal process.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman