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| The corner of Holmbrook Drive & Holmdale Gardens |
Mr Mustard is insulted. The general public generally don't know much parking law but he does and Barnet Council waste his time fighting about blatantly unenforceable PCNs.
His client parked a little unwisely, across the corner above, over the D in Holmdale. On 14 March a traffic warden issued a PCN. It was a wrong un. The statutory purposes for which PCN can be issued at dropped kerbs are as follows:
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| The whole of Barnet is a special enforcement area |
Clearly you don't push a pram out, cross with a walking stick, push a wheelchair into the road, allow small children to cross or even your able bodied self at such a location as you can't keep an eye on both directions of traffic at the same time. The PCN was just wrong but getting the council to admit they have done wrong is always a battle, they view a PCN once issued as inviolable.
On 27 March Mr Mustard made the informal challenge 'The footway has not been dropped for one of the statutory purposes, but has simply sunk over time'. He waited for the cancellation. It didn't come, a refusal did.
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| 'any dropped kerb' is incorrect |
Whilst Mr Mustard waited for the Notice to Owner he made a Freedom of Information request to evidence the fact of the kerb being 'purposely dropped'. It didn't go well for the council and they sugar coated the reply with some guesswork.
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| It wasn't Holmbrook Gardens but never mind |
The Notice to Owner dated 11 May then arrived next. On 15 May Mr Mustard made the same formal representations as at the informal stage. It is normal to be consistent and make the same challenge as the one that the council have already rejected:
The supposed parallel dropped footway, which was on the diagonal in any event, was for access to a residential drive. The response was absolute drivel.
On 28 June Mr Mustard hand delivered the Notice of Appeal to the tribunal, the same grounds for cancellation were replied upon, the kerb has not been expressly dropped, it has simply sunk. That Appeal to the independent tribunal prompted a fee of £30 to be paid by Barnet Council to cover the tribunal's costs. The hearing date was set for 26 July (4 weeks ahead is normal).
On 17 July the council decided to drop the case, presumably as they knew they would lose and in order to save the time cost of preparing the evidence pack.
It is entirely wrong for Barnet Council to reject two lots of clearly perfectly valid representations as an unrepresented motorist might well have assumed the council knew what they were doing and then have paid up.
All the council have achieved is to waste their time and money.
It really isn't that easy to get Mr Mustard to give up.
Yours frugally
Mr Mustard
They did waste their time but they have wasted tax payers money
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