The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s enforcement of a traffic penalty charge notice. This is because the complainant asked the court to consider her case and the matter is now no longer within our remit.
The complaint
Ms X complains the Council failed to provide a response to her appeal against a traffic penalty charge notice (PCN) it issued to her, wrongly enforced the PCN and gave incorrect information to the court at the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC), when Ms X asked it to consider her case. Ms X says this caused her undue worry, stress and financial hardship.
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 started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended.
We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended).
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Parliament has provided a process whereby motorists can ask the court at the TEC to consider their case when they claim something went wrong in the enforcement of a PCN, such as in this case, that a notice of rejection of an appeal was not received.
Ms X exercised this right and as per paragraph three, we no longer have any legal right to investigate.
As per paragraph four, we cannot investigate information the Council provided to this court process.
Final decision
We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is no longer within our legal remit, since Ms X asked the court at the TEC to consider her case and we cannot investigate what took place during court proceedings.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman