The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about multiple penalty charge notices. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. And we cannot achieve the outcome he is seeking.
The complaint
Mr X received multiple penalty charge notices (PCNs). He wants the Council to compile all the notices and treat them as one.
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 has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (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 investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X has a right to submit a late witness statement to the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC), asking it to allow him to go back in the process to an earlier stage, including potentially reinstating his right of appeal against the PCNs to the Council initially and then the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. This can still be done if Mr X has paid the PCNs.
We have not seen evidence that the Council failed to follow the correct procedure when issuing multiple PCN’s to Mr X.
Mr X would like the Council to treat multiple penalty charge notices as one PCN. However, it is not within our remit to ask the Council to do this.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we have not seen enough evidence of fault in the way the Council issued the PCNs to justify an investigation. And we cannot achieve the outcome he is seeking.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman