Islington Council - how much to tell a lie? - £80 - £160

 

A motorist who had been helped previously by Mr Mustard decided his case was so obviously acceptable that he sent in his own proof of delivery glass panels worth £450. To his probable surprise Islington Council said no. At that point he consulted Mr Mustard.

Mr Mustard dug out the relevant traffic order (there are only two sets of wording to cover the whole borough although several hundred pages of maps to go with the refreshingly short wording).

Mr Mustard read through the order (and also searched for the word 'private' which did not find anything relevant) and found this exemption which applies in pay bays:

Nowhere in the traffic order does it draw a distinction about the type of vehicle you are loading/unloading from (it would be different if a private car was parked in a goods vehicles only loading bay but that is not the case here).

Now, if the motorist didn't know Mr Mustard he would probably pay the penalty which is currently £80 but would rise to £160 after 14 days (and not everyone has £80 spare before pay day) but he certainly isn't going to be paying this time.

The council are writing untruths and the PCN will wend its way slowly towards the independent tribunal if Islington Council don't cancel it when Mr Mustard's complaint arrives.

The end (for now).

 

You can look at the wording of the traffic order here 

Click on 'View our 2023....'

Update 11 August 25.

Mr Mustard has been helped by Islington's parking manager before. They are always helpful.

They responded to his complaint over the weekend, which was a bonus and not expected, and the PCN is no more.

Here is some of what one of their team said:

I can confirm that the PCN should have been cancelled and that a mistake has been made by the staff member who dealt with the appeal. Just to reassure you, the officer responding to the case has not intentionally lied. They are relatively new (started around 1 month ago) and they have mistakenly rejected the appeal. I have asked for more training to be provided to this officer as it should be clear that loading/unloading exemptions do not only apply to commercial vehicles or when loading is taking place for business use. 

Regarding the other questions, I can confirm that the email has been logged with our FOI team, but I am able to provide answers with this response. 

There is no section of the traffic order which draws a distinction as to the type of vehicle which can unload in a pay by phone bay. 

The paragraph used is not a standard paragraph and the paragraph will not have been used in other letters. I must caveat that though as it is possible the officer may have made the same decision in another case and therefore used the same or similar wording. I am going to ask that the officer’s correspondence is reviewed to ensure that similar decisions have not been made.

Mr Mustard was concerned that this was a standard response and is pleased that it wasn't. Unfortunate for the enw employee to meet Mr Mustard so soon !