The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to provide an explanation for issuing a Community Protection Notice and Penalty Charge Notices. It would be reasonable for the complainant to use her rights to appeal against the notices. There is not enough remaining injustice to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mrs Z says the Council: issued a Community Protection Notice (CPN), but failed to provide an explanation and any evidence about why; issued six Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) which it has cancelled but has also failed to provide an explanation for.
Mrs Z also says the Council has not responded to any of her complaints.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended).
The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended) London Tribunals (previously known as the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service) considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for London.
The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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 or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mrs Z I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Community Protection Notices are issued under The Anti-social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014.
Section 46 of the Act allows a complainant to appeal against a CPN in the magistrates court, and it would be reasonable for Mrs Z to appeal to the court if she thinks the Council should not have issued the CPN.
The Council has also cancelled the Penalty Charge Notices, but if it had not Mrs Z had the right to appeal against them to a tribunal. There is not enough separate injustice to warrant an investigation.
In cases where we do not investigate the matters in a complaint, we do not separately investigate the Council’s complaint handling process.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs Z’s complaint because it would be reasonable for her to appeal against the notices to the courts or a tribunal. There is not enough separate injustice remaining to warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman