Ealing Council - data hoarders

Monster storage

Mr Mustard has the useful habit of keeping an eye on every PCN which he has touched which is still, as far as he knows, live in a council's eyes. This can lead to him checking a PCN every 2 weeks for 3 years or more, and surprised though you may be at the thought, moribund PCNs do suddenly take on a new life sometimes. Recently Harrow Council, for example, suddenly having woken up sleeping PCNs from 2016 which they should have written off and started sending out Orders For Recovery, preparatory to instructing a bailiff. Pretty tough if you had moved 18 months ago, as being clamped will be the first thing you know.

Delay in processing a PCN should be fatal to a council's case if you can get it to the tribunal as this recent decision shows.

Mr Mustard has some 2016 PCNs from Ealing Council which he has been keeping an eye on. They had been to a bailiff whose behaviour towards a blue badge holder Mr Mustard had complained about. It is a rare council that does anything with a PCN after the bailiff has failed and having done nothing since 2017 Ealing Council should have at the least set the balance to zero, as they had abandoned chasing, or actually deleted the data in accordance with their stated policy. Mr Mustard thought he would find out how much old data they were keeping. Here is what he found out.

That is an awful lot of data and Mr Mustard cannot see that it is proportionate or necessary so he has challenged Ealing Council as below:

Let's see what sort of response arrives.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard