Summary: We cannot investigate Mr C’s complaint about a Penalty Charge Notice he received from the Council. This is because Mr C put in an appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal and we cannot investigate the Tribunal’s consideration of his appeal.

The complaint

1. Mr C complains the Council wrongly issued him with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for an alleged moving traffic contravention. Mr C says he successfully appealed this PCN to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. But, the Tribunal later overturned this decision and the Council did not give him the chance to have another hearing.

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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 Mr C.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. We cannot investigate Mr C’s complaint that the Council was wrong to issue this PCN. This is because Mr C put in an appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
8. The Tribunal allowed Mr C’s appeal, but the Council asked the Tribunal to review this decision. This resulted in the Tribunal issuing a new decision which found the PCN was correctly issued.
9. It was for the Tribunal Adjudicator, not the Council, to consider the Council’s application for a review and to decide how this would be handled. We do not have the power to investigate a complaint about a decision of a Traffic Penalty Tribunal Adjudicator on an appeal.
10. So, we cannot investigate Mr C’s complaint about the Adjudicator’s consideration of the Council’s application for a review.

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Final decision

11. We cannot investigate Mr C’s complaint because he appealed to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal and we cannot investigate the actions of the Tribunal Adjudicator.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman