The Unfairway - Barnet

 

Here we have a tribunal decision for stopping on the yellow zig zag markings outside a school. The motorist was unhappy about the PCN and the adjudicator agreed it was unjust and cancelled it, using nice legal words about mischief and focussing on the traffic management purpose.

If you look at the location in question (Mr Mustard doesn't know exactly where this alleged contravention occurred) you can get a feeling for what happened.

To get into that parking space, reversing first as is usual, you have to stop briefly on the right hand half of the carriageway, the section to which the yellow markings apply. It would be the same if you stopped to allow the car in front to park, you can't smash into it to avoid stopping. That is an entirely different situation to someone stopping on the markings to take a phone call or to drop their children off.

Common sense has prevailed. Why doesn't Barnet Council have some, here is a selection of possible reasons:-

- a computer selects cctv clips of possible contraventions, the computer doesn't have a brain.

- the person who is meant to check the clip either doesn't bother or isn't concentrating

- the person who decides whether to accept a representation or not is either a bit dense or doesn't care

- it's all about the money.

If you think your PCN is unfair take it to the tribunal after you get a formal Notice of Rejection. You get a fairer hearing than from Barnet Council as the qualified lawyer who decides your case is independent and not motivated by the revenue stream.

The end.

Postal delays

One would hope that all enforcement authorities in London (and those just around it) would have recognised the unfairness of sending out moving traffic PCNs (and other documents) to London's residents, which have a penal effect if the 28 day deadline is missed, and added extra time into their systems.

If not, they should be making due allowance and you the motorist should make your representations as soon as you get a document which is late and state the date on which it did actually arrive.

The umbrella body for all councils in London sent out an email to all councils in London on 14 January 21 to give them a nudge if they hadn't already thought about it.

Don't hesitate with Notices about PCNs, deal with them today. 

Procrastinating can be expensive.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Bus lane breakdown

Just when Mr Mustard thinks he must have seen the full spectrum of council effrontery along comes another outrageously wrong PCN to try and fill the budgetary needs of Barnet Council.

In the above shot the blue Honda at the bottom of the picture is stationary and there isn't a driver within the car.

The black car heading down the screen towards it now has two choices. 

The first is to move to the 'wrong' side of the road and overtake the Honda when it is safe to do so. This may be some time given that we are on the A5.

The second is to cut into the bus lane for a short distance, very short given that a check on google street view shows that the bus lane ends where the solid white line ends so any incursion could be said to be de minimis (too trivial for the law to concern itself with) and undertake the Honda.

Clearly the Audi chose the safer undertaking route. One would think that the council or NSL person who reviewed the cctv footage in this case would have used their common sense when watching a Honda that didn't move at all and not authorised the issue of a PCN. The person who looked at the cctv did not use their common sense, they duly sent a PCN.

The motorist concerned made a challenge fully expecting the existence of a stationary car to excuse their short incursion into the bus lane. They were wrong. Their challenge was turned down and the letter rejecting the challenge doesn't mention the broken down car at all, it simply says you can't be present in the bus lane for any distance at all.

Barnet Council wonder why they are unpopular. Mr Mustard knows why as does every right thinking and fair minded person.

Mr Mustard will be seeing you at the tribunal Barnet Council. This PCN won't put a dent in his 86% success rate.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Update 1 October 19: The PCN has been cancelled and a full apology sent for 'any inconvenience this matter may have caused' - Mr Mustard thinks that quite a lot of inconvenience was caused. Flowers, a bottle of wine, a box of chocolates, all three, or £65 (50% of the PCN value) would not have gone amiss.

Box junctions are tough on buses & lorries

To get a bus across a box junction without stopping and into a long enough space on the other side is tricky as smaller nimbler traffic, cars, can fill the empty space as soon as 5m is available beyond the box whereas a double decker bus needs at least 15m so the bus can sit there in lane 2 at the location in question

(cars in lane 1 should go left but some will go straight on) whilst those rowed up in lane 3 can 'steal' the 5m space one at a time and leave the bus unable to proceed legally.

It seems from the adjudicators decision above that in this case the bus driver entered when he did have room to exit so whatever happened next he could not be in contravention, no matter why and for how long he stopped. The council don't seem to understand this and blindly follow the assumption that if the computer thought it was a contravention, it must be one.

Whilst the rules of the road apply equally to buses and lorries, there needs to be some common sense applied for larger vehicles, and generally across London there is as Mr Mustard rarely sees bus companies taken to the tribunal for being stopped in a box junction. This is Barnet though, recently described to Mr Mustard in the following terms:

The overwhelming impression is that Barnet see every PCN as sacrosanct and that to cancel one is a personal defeat.

Mr Mustard knows that Barnet Council read & consider his tweets & blogs so maybe someone in management, with a less rigid approach, will apply the brakes to such cases in the future.

The council seem unable to link the way they behave in relentlessly pursuing unmeritorious PCNs with the poor public perception of the department in surveys. Doh!

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

a reminder of how to approach safely navigating, in financial terms, a box junction 
http://lbbspending.blogspot.com/2016/06/yellowboxfever.html

Haringey ticket times four, tow & then atone

is there a Haringey somewhere else?

This isn't the blog that Mr Mustard expected to write when he was asked to help a Haringey resident last week.

The facts:

You are a resident of Haringey.

You own a car.

You have a resident's permit.

Your park your car perfectly within a residents' bay.

You go on holiday for four weeks.

An emergency arises & the road needs digging up.

Haringey Council are obliged to give less than 24 hours of notice.

Your car receives 4 PCNs for being within a suspended bay.

Your car is uplifted and taken to the car pound.

It incurs a tow fee of £200 and a £40 a night storage charge.

You come back off holiday & make enquiries as to where your car is.

You contact the pound to find you owe £1,680 (more than your 20 year old car is worth).

You prove to the pound that you were out of the country.

They tell you to pay up and can then challenge at the tribunal to get your money back. (what Mr Mustard expected to write)

Haringey Council cancel all four PCNs and release the car from the pound without charge because they had to suspend at short notice. 

They would have made a note of all vehicles parked in the suspended section at the moment when the suspension signs were erected.

Mr Mustard compliments Haringey Council on having done the decent thing without any prompting from him. They have saved themselves the time of fighting the Appeals which Mr Mustard would have made to the tribunal and £120 in fees.

Mr Mustard marks them 9/10. He would have given them 10 if they had relocated the car within the same road but there may not have been room.

All enforcement authorities are meant to show common sense in such a situation so if your holiday parking plans go awry don't lose your temper at the pound, explain the situation, produce your travel documents and you might get a pleasant surprise.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Cheshire West & Chester Council are a $hit council

Mr Mustard isn't all that prone to using bad language and hence he has resorted to the use of the $ symbol in the blog title.

Words do pretty much fail him though that a local authority could take a PCN all the way to adjudication (note the time and cost of sending a council representative to a personal hearing) when the motorist has suffered a personal catastrophe arising out of his medical state. Councils think that parking is more important than life and death; they are wrong. We really do need a body which supervises their day to day decisions and makes them behave more reasonably.

Full marks to the adjudicator, Mr Martin Hoare, who is obliged to apply the law, and found a way to do so to the benefit of the motorist.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Suspension of common sense

It is fair enough to start the suspension at midnight so that residents can move their cars well before the pantechnicon arrives at 7am so it has the necessary room to park but why oh why oh why suspend the bay until 1 minute to midnight? by which time the removals van will be long gone, and in this case it was done by lunch time.

What the council should do is give the residents of the property the authority to remove the suspension signs once the van leaves and this would achieve the double objective of giving the van the necessary space and not inconvenience other residents for longer than absolutely necessary. Mr Mustard wouldn't of course suggest getting your cutters out, removing redundant suspension signs and put council employees out of a job.

This suggestion will not be taken up by Barnet Council.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

TfL - Turn fractionally Late = PCN

If there was ever any doubt that those public servants who have been given huge big brother power have let it go to their heads, here it is. At a badly signed no right turn from the Upper Richmond Road into Dryburgh Rd the vehicle arrowed started to turn before 7am when the restriction starts and can be said to have made the turn when this still was taken, at 2 seconds past the start time of the no right turn restriction. Does this really deserve a PCN for £130?

The odd thing is that if the vehicle had been entering the congestion zone it would not have been ticketed within the first or last 2 minutes of the zone hours. Only TfL know why they don't apply the same sensible discretion to the use of their powers at timed banned turns.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

To you madam, not £110, not even £55 but £nil

and the onus on the council is to apply some common sense

Mr Mustard is helping a lady who accidentally found herself in a section of the Lodge Lane car park at 5.05pm and became the lucky owner of a yellow plastic envelope containing a PCN.

Now the market is, of course, long gone at 5pm with most markets packing up about 3pm. The traffic wardens know the usual finish time and the wardens in North Finchley probably all set their watches for 3.30pm on a Friday afternoon in order to do some easy parking ticket issuing and avoid any management pressure for not having given out sufficient PCN (no, of course there aren't targets but go back to base without having issued any PCN and see how big the rollocking is).

Is it clear where you can and can't park? The PATAS case that Mr Mustard made a note of some months ago says not, so he is confident that after the council have paid the £40 PATAS hearing fee and he presents his arguments that the adjudicator will find in his favour. Thus the motorist is not going to pay the £110 value of the PCN within 28 days or even avail herself of the "generous" offer to pay £55 within 14 days as she hasn't done anything wrong and Mr Mustard can prove it.

In about 3 months, if it goes that far, Mr Mustard will bring you the result.

If you have a PCN issued in the red zone of the Lodge Lane Car park, don't pay it, email mrmustard@zoho.com and watch the PCN magically get cancelled (very slow trick which takes 3 to 6 months).

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Vote of no confidence

How can something so simple get so screwed up

Some cases that reach PATAS must make the adjudicators despair. Common sense should have prevailed at an earlier stage. NSL often appear not to have any in stock. Here is an adjudicator's report from earlier in the week.

The Appellant having produced a letter from his bank the Council now, very sensibly, accepts that payment had been made. The Appeal is therefore allowed.

I would only add that in the absence of any explanation it does not give one a great deal of confidence in the reliability of the Council's evidence in such cases that the Council's system should apparently show that no payment had been received (leading to the issue of a PCN the rejection of representations, and the initial resisting of an Appeal) when in fact it had.

The adjudicator in this case has decades of experience in parking matters and is certain to remember this case when dealing with other Barnet PCN payment queries and may, in future, give the benefit of the doubt to the motorist if the payment situation is at all unclear.

Mr Mustard thinks this is a case where the council could be adjudged to have been wholly unreasonable and a costs application might succeed.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard