New Year's Resolution - 2018

Things have got to change. Mr Mustard is now very busy in his professional life with work + travel exceeding 55 hours a week. There just isn't time for 30 hours a week of parking paperwork on top and any sort of private life.

In 2013 Mr Mustard's record shows that he fought 102 PCN to the end and only lost 3 of those. (That was before the advent of Moving Traffic & Yellow Box PCNs in Barnet which are much harder to beat).

In 2017 he fought 345 PCNs and lost 51 times so not at all shabby a performance (won 84%). The average citizen wins 50% of the time so it is always worth fighting as winning 50% of the time is the same, in the long run, as paying up at 50% all of the time.

As you will appreciate the amount of time spent helping you with your PCNs has quadrupled. This at a time when, since mid-October, Mr Mustard with his credit consultancy hat on has been collecting in more than £10,000,000 from 6,000+ debtors. The Administrator he has been working for (similar to a liquidator) has noticed the rapid progress made on debtors and put Mr Mustard in as part of the team for the next job. Thus Mr Mustard predicts that he will be very busy professionally in 2018. During December due to the pressure of work Mr Mustard became very slow at answering parking emails and was at times a week behind. Although he was lucky not to miss a deadline anywhere he very nearly did and this discomforts Mr Mustard.

The answer that Mr Mustard has come up with is to limit the number of PCNs that he manages. This will be achieved by Mr Mustard fighting the PCN, or offering advice, only in the following circumstances:

• you are mentally ill
• you have a physical disability or a blue badge
• you are old*
• you are impecunious i.e. living entirely on pension or benefits
• the council have blundered~.

(*Some people are old at 65 and others who he has met aged 91 & 92 would give youngsters a run for their money. You need to feel old as well as be old to ask for help please).

(~You will be surprised how many blunders one council can make and keep quiet about. They will feature in a blog once fixed, anonymously if required).

All PCNs that are currently in progress will be completed. For example, Mr Mustard has 

6 tribunal hearings on 3 January 18 followed by 

8 on 10 January and 

5 on 17 January.

There will sadly be a consequent drop in PCN related donations to North London Hospice. Mr Mustard asks all of his readers to donate to them anyway, to gives goods to the shops & to volunteer within the hospice or the shops if you have free time.

Don't just give in from now on and pay up. Assume that for PCNs stuck on your car the council will reject the first challenge and make the second one again once the Notice to Owner is received. If you think you are in the right then go in person to the tribunal, it can be fun, and argue your corner. You will win 50% of the time and the more you fight the better you get. You can get help on this excellent website, with a silly name, Pepipoo.

Mr Mustard would like to wish all of his readers all the best for 2018.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard