Human Rights Act - Article 6

When it comes to Penalty Charge Notices the council are required to get on with the processing in a businesslike manner (a vulgar person might call it the piss or get off the pot principle).

Barnet Council have not done so.

There isn't a strict time limit laid down in the Human Rights Act but PCN sent by post have to be issued within, usually, 28 days.

Notices to Owner have to be issued within 6 months with 56 days being best practice.

Replies to formal representations have to be within 56 days.

The Code of Practice of London Councils states that there shouldn't be a delay at any stage of more than 6 months and if there is a council should cancel a PCN. Barnet Council don't like doing that as it costs them money (is the way they see it).

So if we follow the Code of Practice there should be no more than 168 days between the Notice to Owner and the Charge Certificate or more than 365 days between the PCN and the Charge Certificate.

Here are 30 or so cases which ended up in front of the Adjudicator at PATAS. As soon as a motorist mentions delay and Human Rights the PCN gets binned. Do make sure you mention it.

PATAS	Hearing	PCN	NtO	C.C.	Delay - days
2130290209	03/08/13	23/04/11	28/07/11	09/01/13	531
2120323727	05/08/13	07/07/11	08/09/11	26/03/13	565
213026715A	06/08/13	15/04/11	21/07/11	29/01/13	558
2130267138	06/08/13	18/04/11	18/08/11	05/02/13	537
2130332444	06/08/13	25/06/11	23/08/11	05/02/13	532
2130314737	06/08/13	11/05/11	25/07/11	30/01/13	555
2130299597	06/08/13	24/04/11	03/08/11	09/01/13	525
2130296850	06/08/13	08/07/11	06/09/11	06/02/13	519
2130290934	06/08/13	03/06/11	16/08/11	05/02/13	539
2130267841	06/08/13	06/07/11	06/09/11	06/02/13	519
2130267386	06/08/13	24/06/11	23/08/11	05/02/13	532
213038799A	20/09/13	31/05/11	11/08/11	19/03/13	586
2130408943	24/09/13	22/09/11		05/04/13	561
2304453008	08/10/13	24/06/11	24/08/11	22/03/13	576
2130422172	13/10/13	15/09/11	25/10/11	04/04/13	527
2130443525	14/10/13	21/05/11		16/01/13	606
2130433667	16/10/13	03/06/11	16/08/11	05/02/13	539
2130504517	21/10/13	10/08/11	26/10/11	05/04/13	527
2130465073	24/10/13	26/09/11	03/11/11	08/04/13	522
2130473468	28/10/13	13/09/11	24/10/11	04/04/13	528
213044810A	28/10/13	02/06/11	16/08/11	20/03/13	582
2130473468	28/10/13	13/09/11		04/04/13	569
213044810A	28/10/13	02/06/11	16/08/11	20/03/13	582
2130473821	29/10/13	09/07/11		27/03/13	627
2130478310	29/10/13	13/07/11		27/03/13	623
2130512548	30/10/13	25/07/11	04/10/11	28/03/13	541
2130450837	30/10/13	12/05/11	26/07/11	12/03/13	595
2130522530	04/11/13	20/07/11		28/03/13	617
2130517621	04/11/13	26/07/11		28/03/13	611
2130491867	04/11/13	19/07/11		27/03/13	617
2130433496	04/11/13	13/07/11		27/03/13	623
2130450939	05/11/13	03/06/11		20/03/13	656
2130487870	08/11/13	19/04/11	11/07/11	09/01/13	548
2130434626	08/11/13	21/06/11	22/08/11	21/03/13	577
2130435844	19/11/13	06/06/11		15/03/13	648
2130504528	20/11/13	18/10/11	18/10/11	02/04/13	532
2130517177	26/11/13	24/09/11	01/11/11	08/04/13	524

So the number of days from PCN to Charge Certificate should not exceed 365 and the number of days from Notice to Owner to charge Certificate should not exceed 183. You will see that it frequently does. 656 days is the winner so far although Mr Mustard did have a case heading for 1,000 days but he fixed it without recourse to the Adjudicator.

Mr Mustard remains hopeful that if he continues to highlight the ways in which parking goes wrong, they will start to do it right.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard