Summary: We cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of a penalty charge notice. This is because the injustice Miss X claims stems from the penalty charge notice itself and she has used her right of appeal against it to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss X, complains the Council has spent money on postage to escalate a penalty charge notice (PCN) and may incur further expenses taking legal action against her, despite issuing a Local Government Finance Act 1988 Section 114 Notice which restricts new spending. Miss X disputes the PCN and has appealed against it to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. She says the Council’s claim against her is baseless and she will not pay the penalty charge.

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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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. We we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right but cannot investigate if the person has already used it. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
5. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for all areas of England outside London.

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The injustice Miss X claims is the result of the PCN rather than the Council’s use of public money to post her notices about it. Miss X has appealed against the PCN to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal and we cannot therefore consider any complaint about it. It is Miss X’s choice whether to pay the PCN but if she does not, the Council is entitled to register the unpaid PCN as a debt with the Traffic Enforcement Centre and instruct enforcement agents (bailiffs) to recover payment from her.
8. Any financial cost to Miss X from the Council’s postage of notices is not significant and we will not therefore investigate this point separately. We also cannot punish the Council or issue it with fines, as Miss X would like.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because Miss X’s injustice stems from the PCN issued by the Council and we cannot investigate any complaint about this as she has used her right of appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman