Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about a penalty charge notice. This is because Mrs X has appealed against the penalty charge notice to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains about a penalty charge notice (PCN) issued by the Council. She says her car was cloned and she is not responsible for the contravention.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. 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

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

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My assessment

7. Mrs X made representations against the PCN to the Council and, when it rejected her representations, she appealed to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
8. Because Mrs X has used her right of appeal against the PCN the restriction set out at Paragraph 3 applies. We cannot therefore investigate the complaint.

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Final decision

9. We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because Mrs X has used her right of appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman