Persistence pays - all councils, not just Haringey

Mr Mustard was contacted by a motorist who put the health and safety of his father before petty parking considerations. The bay was a pure Event Day one. If the motorist has described the facts in a good manner there is no need for Mr Mustard to rewrite them. On 1 June he made the informal challenge (the one in response to a PCN placed on your car or put in your hand):

 It was 5 July before the challenge was rejected. Here it is:

Mr Mustard expects that you find it hard to believe that there is any real sympathy otherwise the PCN would have been cancelled. The (un)Fitness for Work note confirmed that the patient was not fit for work, suffered seizures and had been referred to hospital for tests. How much more sick do you have to be to get Haringey to exercise their discretion?

Mr Mustard advised the motorist not to pay at the 'bribe' rate of 50% as he was fairly confident that he could beat the PCN on the basis of inadequate signage. Councils offer this discount even when they don't have to (it was required in this case as the challenge was within 14 days of the PCN) as they know that motorists worry about it and that the vast majority of motorists do not have sufficient determination to see things through and may mistakenly think they cannot re-use a challenge which has been rejected. They can and they should for consistency.

On 24 July the Notice to Owner arrived.

Mr Mustard made representations against it, known as formal representations as they are the ones described in statute, and the heading apart, they repeated the earlier challenge and were made on 26 July:

 This time, the same challenge met the opposite outcome, acceptance.

This was done by a different council staff member.

Mr Mustard finds Haringey Council now accept most of his challenges either because there has been a change of management or someone has analysed all of Mr Mustard's cases and discovered that he almost never loses against them.

What the public should learn from this experience is that if you want to get a PCN cancelled, and you have a half decent argument, is that you have to see the fight through. You might also have to start an Appeal at the independent  Environment and Traffic Adjudicators. Decide at the beginning, pay or fight. If the idea is to fight don't be put off by the first council rejection, it is all about the money.

The end.