Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council failed to respond to her representations against a penalty charge notice. This is because Mrs X has challenged the Council’s escalation of the case with the Traffic Enforcement Centre at Northampton County Court.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains she made representations against a penalty charge notice (PCN) issued by the Council but did not receive a response. She says she received no further correspondence from the Council about the PCN until the Council registered the unpaid PCN as a debt with the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC).

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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 could take the matter to court. We may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court but cannot investigate if the person has already been to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
5. The TEC is part of Northampton County Court. It considers applications from local authorities to pursue payment of unpaid PCNs and from motorists to challenge local authorities’ pursuit of unpaid PCNs.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Mrs X confirms she has applied to the TEC to challenge the Council’s escalation of the PCN; any complaint about this issue therefore falls outside our jurisdiction as set out at Paragraph 3. If the TEC has refused Mrs X’s application she may wish to request a review of its decision.
8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council wrongly advised her she could go to her local court to have her application witnessed without an appointment as this issue did not cause her significant injustice.

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Final decision

9. We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because Mrs X has used the alternative remedy available to her. She has lodged an application with the TEC and we therefore retain no discretion to investigate her complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman