The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about Penalty Charge Notices for alleged parking or traffic contraventions. It would be reasonable to expect Mr X to use the statutory representations and appeals procedure.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the conduct of Council commissioned Enforcement Agents seeking to recover Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) debts. He says he his repeated written contact to the Council has been ignored. He wants the Council to suspend current recovery action and to review his case.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes limits on what we can investigate.
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) London Tribunals considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for London, and the Traffic Penalty Tribunal for the rest of England.
How I considered this complaint
I considered information from the complainant and the Council and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Since Mr X complained to us, the Council has confirmed to him that it has suspended recovery action. Mr X had successfully applied to the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) for seven of his eight Penalty Charge Notices (PCN) to be reverted to an earlier stage. The Council has confirmed it is in the process of considering his representations for these cases and the one other outstanding PCN.
We will not investigate because it is reasonable for Mr X to use the right of appeal to the parking adjudicator at the London Tribunals. This right will be available to him if the Council decides to reject his representations and issued him with a formal Notice of Rejection. Alternatively, the Council may decide to accept Mr X’s representations and the PCNs will no longer be payable.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it would be reasonable for him to use the representations and appeals procedure.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman