To you madam, not £110, not even £55 but £nil

and the onus on the council is to apply some common sense

Mr Mustard is helping a lady who accidentally found herself in a section of the Lodge Lane car park at 5.05pm and became the lucky owner of a yellow plastic envelope containing a PCN.

Now the market is, of course, long gone at 5pm with most markets packing up about 3pm. The traffic wardens know the usual finish time and the wardens in North Finchley probably all set their watches for 3.30pm on a Friday afternoon in order to do some easy parking ticket issuing and avoid any management pressure for not having given out sufficient PCN (no, of course there aren't targets but go back to base without having issued any PCN and see how big the rollocking is).

Is it clear where you can and can't park? The PATAS case that Mr Mustard made a note of some months ago says not, so he is confident that after the council have paid the £40 PATAS hearing fee and he presents his arguments that the adjudicator will find in his favour. Thus the motorist is not going to pay the £110 value of the PCN within 28 days or even avail herself of the "generous" offer to pay £55 within 14 days as she hasn't done anything wrong and Mr Mustard can prove it.

In about 3 months, if it goes that far, Mr Mustard will bring you the result.

If you have a PCN issued in the red zone of the Lodge Lane Car park, don't pay it, email mrmustard@zoho.com and watch the PCN magically get cancelled (very slow trick which takes 3 to 6 months).

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard