Pull the wool?

You've got to be good to pull the wool over Mr Mustard's eyes.

His client paid to park in the Golders Green Road, she forgot she was driving her husband's car and so paid for her own one. Needless to say she received a PCN. She challenged the PCN and then the Notice to Owner on the not unreasonable grounds that the council had not lost out. She was rejected twice.

For the tribunal appeal Mr Mustard's help was sought. He filed an Appeal which was partly on the grounds that the bay sign did not tell you that you could use a parking meter, at which it is impossible to pay for the wrong car as a registration number is not required (and you are unlikely to place the machine receipt in the wrong car!).

Here is the relevant section of the council's case summary:

PbP = PayByPhone

and here is the plan they produced of the area showing the parking restriction signs

No parking meters on that plan.

Mr Mustard went to the council's maps and extracted another version just a little further down the road and oh, guess what, there is a parking meter which was just off the page in the council's evidence to the tribunal.

ooh, a parking meter at the other end of the bay.

A coincidence, an outright lie or just an unfortunate oversight? Mr Mustard will be filing a complaint with the council that he has been lied to.

The other interesting fact about this PCN is that the motorist paid £2.10 to park for an hour (including the optional 10p text reminder which Mr Mustard does not opt for as it is poor value being 5% of the parking charge) and then extended for 30 minutes at a cost of £1.10 (a 10% uplift to receive a text!) and the council had not refunded the charges paid to park although that would be the obviously fair thing to do.

This time, once the case hit the tribunal stage and Mr Mustard argued that it was procedurally unfair (a general law requirement for enforcement authorities so to be)  the council refunded £3 (not the 20p you note) in order to see if they could hang on to the £60 PCN. That looks unlikely given that they have either mislead or lied to the tribunal and to the Appellant (the motorist making the Appeal). There are dire warnings on council paperwork that motorists risk fines of £5,000 if they tell porky pies; Barnet Council need to get their own house in order.

If you are in the same boat and going to the tribunal do ask for a refund of the parking fee that you paid.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Barnet Council have now been in touch with Mr Mustard, apologised for the inconvenience and cancelled the PCN. It was just an error, not an attempt to deceive.

Stop parking in parking bays! Yes really.

Mr Mustard has permission to blog this

nice motor

Look! a car with a parking ticket. Is it for parking with a wheel outside of the bay? which would be perfectly understandable as the bay is narrow and the car is wide. No. The London Council's CEO handbook says that an entire wheel should be outside a bay before a PCN is issued and that is not the case here. The car is parked such that all of the zig-zag is visible. The alleged contravention was this one:

Stopped on a pedestrian crossing or crossing area marked by zig zags in Golders Green Road.

Now do you think that this offence has been committed because Mr Mustard doesn't? There is clearly a bay marked out for parking outside of the zigzags and they only apply to the area between the lines, not across the carriageway up to the building line, as is the case with yellow lines.

For locals, this is near Woodstock Avenue.

Formal representations were submitted in response to the Notice to Owner saying that the alleged contravention did not occur.

The back office in Croydon agreed and cancelled the PCN which should not have been issued in the first place, thus wasting everyone's time.  This line appeared in the cancellation letter:

Although we have cancelled your penalty charge notice in (sic) this occasion, please be advised that vehicles are not permitted to park there and alternative parking should be sought next time. Mr Mustard suggests Potters Bar or Welwyn Garden City or anywhere else that gives you some free parking time. Hertsmere Council have it right.

So there you have it readers. You must stop parking in marked out parking bays in Golders Green or risk getting a PCN. Now tell Mr Mustard why shops are finding trading so tough in the London Borough of Barnet. Could it be that NSL's traffic wardens are completely out of control?

It is a good job that this case didn't reach PATAS as it looks like a sure fire case for costs to be paid for wasting the motorist's time, or the necessary "wholly unreasonable behaviour" by Barnet Council.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard