The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council will not take back a penalty charge notice from its enforcement agents as the complainant has the right to ask the courts to consider her case.
The complaint
Miss X complains she did not receive details of a penalty charge notice (PCN) which is now being dealt with by the Council’s enforcement agents (EA). Miss X wants the Council to take the PCN back from its EA and seeks compensation for the time she has spent dealing with this matter.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Parliament has provided a procedure by which the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC), part of the county court system, considers whether to set back the enforcement of PCNs. Miss X had the right to use this procedure as she had not received the initial notification of the PCN. It is reasonable to expect Miss X to have done so, and so we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because she could have reasonably asked the courts to consider her case.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman