Redbridge Council - not so fast

On 4 June Mr Mustard lost a tribunal appeal which related to Redbridge Council. He advised his client to pay the £110 within the 28 days allowed, which was done. The motorist also very generously made a donation to the North London Hospice.

On 9 June Mr Mustard filed a Review request at the tribunal. The Chief Adjudicator considered it and listed it for a Review hearing on 2 July. At the Review hearing the original decision was over-turned and Redbridge Council were ordered to make a refund of the £110 'without delay'.

Mr Mustard thinks that allowing 28 days is reasonable for any refund, that being the same timetable as the public gets to pay up in.

On 30 July the motorist chased Redbridge for his refund. Silence ensued, a refund didn't arrive.

He kept on chasing to no avail and then asked Mr Mustard for his advice.

Mr Mustard gave him the direct email of a manager who he had previously dealt with. That was on 17 September. A reply wasn't received but a refund was.

Perhaps the apology is 'in the post'.

Councils should put as much effort into a refund as motorists have to do into paying them promptly. If the boot had been on the other foot the council could have increased the penalty to £165. There will be no compensation for the delay by the council.

Councils should also have good manners. They would be better regarded if they did. 

Newham Council are Cheats - #2

 

Newham Council removed this car to the pound. Google street view is dated but there are lots of bays without signs at this location. If there isn't a sign alongside the bay in which you are parked the rules have not been communicated to the motorist and no PCN should have been issued, let alone the car removed.

Newham Council are penalising innocent motorists instead of catching vandals who damage or remove signs. They need to start dealing with criminal behaviour and stop issuing unlawful penalties.

The motorist did well to produce better evidence than the council. Clear photos from all angles showing the lack of signage is all you need.

The end.

Day 56 - deemed acceptance of formal representations for a parking PCN.

 

Extract of 2022 Appeals Regulations

The above Regulations are only about parking (not moving traffic e.g. yellow boxes or bus lanes) and applies to 'formal' representations which are those made in response to

- a Notice to Owner

- a postal drive away or physical prevention PCN sent by post

- after recovering your car from the pound to which it was removed.

Mr Mustard has a control sheet for every PCN he fights (an old school sheet of paper) onto which the outline facts of the case are noted. Thus he has the dates of the formal representations and the Notice of Rejection adjacent to each other and his experienced eye picks up cases which are near to or above 56 days. He had such a case in Westminster in May 24 and so no matter how bad the parking might have been (the elderly driver had paid for the wrong vehicle so not a heinous crime) Westminster had timed themselves out of the game. They can't complain, they get 56 days and a motorist never gets more than 28. Here are the grounds of Appeal to the tribunal.

Nine days after starting the Appeal the City of Westminster decided not to fight the Appeal but to cancel the PCN. That was sensible.

Mr Mustard wasn't finished. He thought he couldn't be the one in a million for whom the process had gone wrong and so he asked for some data under the Freedom of Information legislation.

Westminster replied fully and furnished Mr Mustard with a spreadsheet containing 407,284 entries (they included both under and over 54 days). Having distilled it down to late entries Mr Mustard sent a follow up to the parking department which told them, in measured terms, that they had done wrong.

Parking management at Westminster are always polite to Mr Mustard (some council parking managers aren't keen on Mr Mustard because he picks up their errors and causes them extra work but a department which enforces the law must follow the law) and he had to give them a gentle nudge. Shortly thereafter he received a full response.

Mr Mustard decided to double-check the position regarding 'bailiff' charges as although he expected they were being refunded he does like clarity. His question was really to see who picks up the bill for refunding the bailiff charges and it seems it is the bailiff. Don't cry for them, the companies make £millions (the individual bailiffs a pretty penny if they work hard).

There was a swift response to the follow-up:

Good news for the 145 motorists affected. If you are one of them please donate some of your refund to the North London Hospice as a thank you for Mr Mustard's unknown help.

This just leaves the unasked question as to why there isn't a software rule in place which automatically cancels PCNs in accordance with the law once a formal representation reaches the age of 55 days as no Notice of Rejection can then be served in time. PCN software is set up to automate the process as far as possible to the benefit of the enforcement authority. It should also contain parameters which ensure that authorities, endowed with huge power, do not abuse it and break the law.

Mr Mustard expects that quite a few parking managers read the blog. He will be checking all authorities in London in the year to March 2025 to make sure they have not erred like Westminster did. He will expect them to take the same corrective action mirroring the professional approach taken by Westminster.

The end.

 

Honourable Haringey

Mr Mustard was consulted about this story which resolved itself thanks to the enquiries made by the local democracy reporter. Mr Mustard, however, carried on digging. The car was towed from a spot on the left of the following picture, which is from 2021 and is in White Hart Lane near the car boot sale site.

What Mr Mustard found, was that since June 2021 those lines that you can see which are single yellow, should have been double yellows. They were in 2020 as this photo shows.

Mr Mustard is going to look back once he has obtained the Traffic Orders which existed prior to June 2021 (when changes were made within the White Hart Lane zone) to compare the lines which should have been there with what was actually there in case there has been an even longer standing problem.

So far, after a perfectly pleasant exchange of emails with the traffic orders officer, it was accepted that the single yellow lines should have been doubles and will be repainted and also that the school keep clear zig zag lines needed signs which are now to be erected.

Subsequently Mr Mustard asked if all wrongful PCNs would be refunded and to his pleasant surprise (it shouldn't be a surprise, any enforcement authority which has wrongfully demand a penalty, and possibly removed what turned out to be legally parked vehicles, should put their hand up and refund without demur) Haringey Council, via a Technical Officer, sent Mr Mustard this lovely email:

No need for you to wait if you were one of the affected parties. Contact Haringey Council, quote your PCN and ask for a refund. There isn't an email address for parking so best start at customer.services@haringey.gov.uk

If you have a current PCN, point out that the single yellow lines should be doubles and that the PCN must be cancelled as it was issued 'ultra vires' (outside the pwers of the council).

Any problems, do email mrmustard@zoho.com

End.

St Johns Wood High Street - potential PCN refunds

This is where a contact of Mr Mustard's received a PCN here but the parking sign for this place was on the side of the hoarding. The sign isn't easy to find, given the number of other signs and also, by law, it has to face the carriageway. It is under the red light if you are struggling.

If you got a PCN in this bay, also when the sign was on the side, the City of Westminster will refund you, as they did my contact.

You don't see fairness like that very often.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Tower Hamlets - no paying out policy

On 22 March, Miss A's car was towed to the pound. She paid the £65 PCN charge and a £200 removal fee to recover her car. Mr Mustard took up the cudgels on her behalf and a hearing at the independent tribunal ensued on 24 June. Mr Mustard/Miss A lost on the PCN but won on the tow away so £200 was directed by the adjudicator to be returned 'without delay'.

As of 20 June the refund had not been made (a bit rich when you can only recover your car by paying instantly) so Mr Mustard decided to ask for the procedures which are in place to ensure that the council do follow the decisions of adjudicators, which they are legally bound to do.

Here they aren't:

That can't be right surely. The council will have plenty of policies and procedures to make sure you pay on time, as well as a 50% supplement if you miss the 28 day payment deadline, but none at all to make sure they issue refunds quickly. 

The council have a general duty at law to be procedurally fair; clearly they aren't.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Sit down, there is PCN good news

Last Autumn Mr Mustard had a spate of PCN for mini-buses that were parked in contravention of the overnight waiting ban (yes, the one that no-one knew existed). One family, with 9 children if he has got the number correct, Mr Mustard has only seen some of the brood when he visited the parents, were at their wits end as they received 6 PCN in about a month. They had paid 3 before Mr Mustard pointed out that he could probably overturn them all. Mr Mustard set to with the 3 that were live. Two of them had representations refused and Mr Mustard was heading towards the tribunal having registered two Appeals at about the same time as another motorist got there and the adjudicator made this withering judgment

'Mis-directed itself' = cocked their case up

Mr Mustard then suggested to the council that they DNC (Do not contest) his appeals and quite close to the hearing date they did just that. They also DNCd the case for his neighbour who uses a brand new mini-bus for charitable purposes at his own expense.

On one PCN some paperwork went missing in the post and it was registered as a debt by default at the Traffic Enforcement Centre. Mr Mustard submitted a form TE9 (witness statement) to wind the process back and at the same time reminded the parking section that they owed him a reply to his email of 25 November in which he gave the council a chance to look good by cancelling every incorrect mini-bus PCN and refunding all payments received to which idea a deaf ear was turned. They did though agree to cancel the 6th PCN which had been registered as a debt (and the bailiff visit would have been the eventual outcome but for Mr Mustard's intervention).

Mr Mustard then asked the parking section to refund the 3 PCN which were paid before the family knew of Mr Mustard. Rather than resistance he received an instantaneous reply that this was being done.

Knock Mr Mustard down with a feather. What a result. He is feeling epic. He shouldn't because any council parking department that has done wrong should give the money back but they make limpets look like pathetic creatures in the hanging on to something stakes.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Andrew Dismore puts the boot into the Saracen's Event Day zone

All credit to Andrew Dismore for raising this and getting the right result. Mr Mustard does believe that some at the council now genuinely want to try a little harder to focus on traffic management rather than revenue raising but this is but a short step on a long road.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Expired Permit PCNs should be cancelled

Mr Mustard really doesn't like such vague answers. "Short term" is not specified as a period and letters were not sent to three residents of my street (out of about 40 with cars) who had suffered reminder failure which makes the number of 20 seem risible. (Did Capita pay any compensation for their short-term failure? - probably not, as the council saved postage and gained PCN income so had a profit, not a loss).

Reminders have been sent ever since the first CPZ was introduced in about 1987 and so they are custom & practice, thus residents have a reasonable expectation that they will be reminded on which they are entitled to rely.

See also this FOI response to Mr Mustard

so the council guess at 20 when 46 reminders are needed per working day to equal the annual number of permits in issue of 12,000.

Anyway if you are one of the affected residents you can email Richard Cornelius at cllr.r.cornelius@barnet.gov.uk and cc barnet@nslservices.co.uk with your PCN number and ask for it to be cancelled and if you have paid one, since mid-May when the process was moved to Capita, ask for a refund as you have paid under a mistake. 

An honest council would refund you. Let's see how honest Barnet Council are (not very is Mr Mustard's guess).

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Pay-by-Phone - an obvious flaw - easily fixed

An evidently persistent lady, probably one of his readers, has kindly emailed Mr Mustard to tell of her success in recently obtaining a refund of £30 that she paid in April 2013 in respect of a PCN which was issued because she had paid £1.10 for the wrong car. She had spoken to an operator and added her new vehicle and logic dictates that 99% of the time most people will have sold the old one. Why then, when you are transferred back to the automated payment system to finish your transaction and it defaults to the last car you paid for which will of course be the one you just sold.

Wouldn't it be better if adding a new vehicle wiped the default option and if the operator also asked you if you had sold a car.

That way the available cars for you to pay for is kept to the minimum as is the possibility for error.

If the council are committed to truly helping residents they will ask Verrus PayByPhone to implement such a simple software change.

If however, they want to revenue raise from your unforced error, they won't.

Let's see whay they do? (the council do read this blog & my tweets @_MrMustard)

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

(Mr Mustard recommends going on-line if you have access and doing the change yourself. He has actually registered 3 vehicles himself but he hasn't paid any money ever; it's just in case one day he has no other choice; for now, he will continue to park on the edge of a CPZ and walk).

p.s. If you ahve paid for the wrong car in the past and  ended up paying the PCn you might as well ask for a refund of the parking charge. You haven't, after all, had any consideration for it. Send your request to barnet@nslservices.co.uk

Islington sign up

Regular readers will remember Mr Mustard blogging about the above confusing sign outside the Lilian Baylis studio, adjacent to Sadler's Wells. The effect of the no loading sign is to make it illegal for a blue badge holder to park there at any time.

Mr Mustard likes to be accurate and so he wrote to Islington Council and asked them, basically, if he was confused or if they were. They promised to see if they could make the signs clearer for the public. In the context of an email from a local government employee the word "clearer" meant "legal" which it would have been better to write in the first place. Despite Mr Mustard going to the trouble of bringing incorrect signage to the attention of Islington Council they didn't write and thank him nor tell him that they changed the signage to the below version on 15 November 13, which isn't very gracious of them.

This is clearer. The blue badge holder can now park there from 10am until 4 pm and overnight from 6.30pm to 8am (no lie in then? and please note that the above sign is a library sign, the actual times are probably the same as they were, Mr Mustard will check for you) and the rest of the time no-one should be parking there. The disabled can now safely park for a lunchtime or evening show but in the late afternoon they'll have to find somewhere else. It seems a bit of a waste. The position appears to Mr Mustard to be OK for a 24 hour disabled bay.

Now Mr Mustard wonders if the reason that Islington council didn't reply to him isn't that they lack basic manners or organisational skills but because they thought that if they kept quiet Mr Mustard wouldn't ask if they were going to voluntarily refund all the tickets that were issued when the signage was incorrect. Bad luck Islington because you were asked that today, weren't you?

Please do the decent thing and refund every PCN at this location for as long as the sign has been wrong, up to 6 years ago (the normal cut off for liability). If you don't Mr Mustard has a feeling that you might be reading about yourself in places with a much wider readership than this blog and an Islington resident might object to this year's Accounts being signed off as you have no lawful right to the income. It won't hurt that much, probably only a few hundred PCN.

Mr Mustard is grateful to the blue badge holder who got stung here and paid up. They might get their money back if they were to write in to islington Council now.

If there is a ridiculously complicated set of signs in your area, feel free to send a photograph and the location details to mrmustard@zoho.com

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

CPZ - move your money back

Here is a link to the refund application email address, here

Thank you councillors Richard Cornelius & Dean Cohen (presumably you both had something to do with the decision).

Now how about getting that clamped and removed car returned like you promised Richard?

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard