The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about penalty charge notices issued by the Council for using the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee toll bridges without paying the tolls. This is because the penalty charge notices carried a right of appeal and Mr X’s complaint about them is late. Mr X is unhappy with the Council’s handling of the final two penalty charge notices, which remain unpaid, but Mr X has appealed against them and there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant further investigation.
The complaint
The complainant, Mr X, complains about the Council’s issue and handling of several penalty charge notices (PCNs) for failing to pay the tolls for the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee bridges. He says the Council has sent enforcement agents (bailiffs) to his father’s house and charged him over £1,000. He is also unhappy the Council did not advise him he could apply to transfer liability for the PCNs, which rested with his father as the registered keeper of the vehicle, sooner.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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) The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. We may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right but cannot investigate if they have already done so. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended) The Traffic Penalty Tribunal considers parking and moving traffic offence appeals for all areas of England outside London.
We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X is registered for the Local User Discount Scheme which is a scheme which allows local residents to make unlimited trips across the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee bridges for an annual fee of £10. However between April 2018 and February 2022 Mr X made crossings using his father’s car, which is not registered for the scheme.
The information provided by Mr X suggests he forgot his father’s car was not registered; he did not therefore pay the toll for using the bridges and the Council issued him 12 PCNs, 10 of which he has paid.
Mr X appealed against the remaining two PCNs but the Traffic Penalty Tribunal dismissed his appeals. Because Mr X has used his right of appeal against these PCNs we cannot investigate any complaint about their issue or the Council’s decision not to cancel them.
Mr X is unhappy the Council did not tell him his father could apply to transfer liability for the PCNs to him but there is not enough evidence to show this was fault. It also makes little difference in practice as Mr X’s father could have appealed against any PCNs issued in his name and could have consented to Mr X appealing on his behalf, even if he remained liable. It is therefore unlikely we would say any failure to advise him about this sooner caused significant injustice or that we would recommend a remedy for Mr X or his father.
We will not investigate any concerns Mr X has about the Council’s handling of the 10 PCNs he has paid as they are late. These PCNs date from between April 2018 and January 2022 and if Mr X or his father wished to challenge them it would have been reasonable for them to appeal.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint. This is because Mr X has used his right of appeal to challenge the two outstanding PCNs and any complaint about the Council’s handling of the 10 paid PCNs is late. We would also have expected Mr X or his father to use their right of appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman