Issue: 0 marks out of 10 - Processing: 9/10 (Harrow Council PCN)

Harrow Council slip up but quickly recover

Mr Mustard helped a friend out with a council PCN; he normally only deals with Barnet but for a close friend he popped 20m over the border into Harrow. Always useful to contrast Barnet with elsewhere.

His friend had a hospital appointment for her gammy leg and knew she was going to be under the 3 hours she is allowed to display her blue badge, with time clock, right outside Edgware General in Burnt Oak Broadway on the section between Camrose Avenue and Columbia Ave. You can see that parking is not allowed for those without blue badges at certain times and the No Loading time plate also means that Blue Badge holders cannot park there either during those same periods. There is clearly a Blue Badge displayed in the car.

The reason that the car could be parked there was that No Loading sign has to be accompanied by marks on the kerb, in this case by single marks which go across the kerb. They would usually be 250mm by 50mm so are large enough to see. They should also be every 2 to 4m so that there is always one alongside your car.

As you can see from the middle photo above, taken by the traffic warden, they are not present. The traffic warden should have seen that the legal requirements to allow for the issue of a PCN were not met and not issued one.

This is what they should look like.

the picture is of the kerb stones

and this

doubles with doubles and single with singles

Mr Mustard sent a challenge in. Within 6 days of getting it Harrow Council put their hand up to the error and cancelled the PCN. Well done Harrow; fast and accurate (way faster than Barnet who would probably had refused the challenge). Perhaps Harrow recalled that Mr Mustard beat them last time out at PATAS at a different location where the kerb marks were missing. Mr Mustard was going to give them 10/10 for processing but he had to post his challenge in by letter as they don't publish an email address but insist you use a webform which Mr Mustard has a policy of not using as they are too cumbersome and straitjacket him (no jokes thank you).

If you have had a PCN in the same circumstances, then you should challenge it all the way to PATAS.

This is what Mr Mustard's friend said:

Hi there you utter genius.

Just got home to find this. Amazing! Fantastic! Thank you sooo much. You are brilliant! Sorry to be so subdued about it. It must be the overwhelming delight. But can you imagine the ordinary motorist having to deal with a situation like this without knowledge or experience of the system and no Mr Mustard to the rescue? There should be some penalty for wardens giving tickets erroneously. Apart from the stress caused to the innocent motorist there is all the wasted time and money to sort it out.

Anyway, thanks so much Mr Mustard, and I will make a donation to the hospice.

So Blue Badge holders, keep your wits about you and stay away from kerb marks, blips or flashes as they are known. If you do get ticketed check that both the sign and the kerb marks are present and if not, appeal. It isn't hard. You just have to do it three times as explained in the guide above and to the left on the blog.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard