Barnet - recently expired blue badges

Leeway but for sailors not blue badge holders

Having written a blog about discretion being granted by Harrow Council to recently expired blue badge holders Mr Mustard thought he should check the situation in his home borough.

Contrary to the expectation of you-and-whose-army (Ewan Hoosami - this had to be explained to Mr Mustard on one of his slow days!) whom Mr Mustard has dined with and is a right card, Barnet actually display some brotherly & sisterly love towards the less mobile, viz:

We would do one of two things:

·       -  Allow discretion for up to 14 days from expiry

·       - Check whether a renewal has been applied for and if the application was made within the required timescale we would apply discretion and chase the application through the system

I hope this helps to clarify.

So you are safe to display a blue badge that has expired by up to 14 days (as long as the blue badge holder is knocking about near the car once parked)  and could even get some assistance in speeding up your application or one that you suddenly leap into action and make.

Mr Mustard is pleased to see this commonsense approach.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Blue badge renewal inefficiency (Crapita deal with blue badges)

A recent PATAS adjudication on a PCN.

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The Appellant is a disabled badge holder who parked on a yellow line without displaying a badge. It was at the time in the process of being renewed; and, in the absence of any evidence from the Council to refute it I see no reason to doubt her evidence as to the renewal process. She made her application on the 16th June, the day before the old one expired (not having received a reminder) but nevertheless a month and a half before the date of the PCN. She was informed there would be an 8 week delay and that it was not possible to provide any sort of temporary cover note. The badge was not issued until the 11th  August. No explanation has been provided for what is on the face of it an extraordinarily long delay.

It is the case that in the absence of a disabled badge on display the exemption in the TMO for that purpose does not apply (and the Council in its case summary quotes from a number of my own previous decisions to that effect). However this is effectively a case of a Council demanding a penalty for the failure to display a document which the Council's own inefficiency had prevented her from displaying. It seems to me that  doing so amounts to the equivalent of an abuse of process; and in such circumstances no enforceable contravention can be said to have occurred ( see the dicta in Camden v The Parking Adjudicator  and BHS t/a First for Food Service Ltd [2011] EWHC 295 Admin [2011]EWCA Civ 905).

In addition the Appellant raises the question of the clear and correct signage of the restriction. The location clearly lies within a Controlled Zone; and I see no reason to doubt the evidence of the Appellant's representative, Mr Dishman, supported by photographs that at the entry point to the Zone which she used show there is only a single Zone sign positioned on the far side of the carriageway. This seems to me to be in be breach of the requirements of Direction 8 Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions; and even if some authorisation for a single sign had been given it seems to me it should be located on the left hand side of the carriageway. I would not be satisfied that the signage relied on was clear and correct.

The Appeal is therefore allowed.

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If you have a blue badge the renewal of which was not processed efficiently do challenge the PCN all the way to PATAS and quote PATAS case number 2140524281 in support (not a precedent but should be persuasive). If you need help, send an email to mrmustard@zoho.com

Blue badges are only meant to be given to people who cannot walk more than 50m. What are they meant to do for 8 weeks whilst Crapita faff about, stay at home?

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Finchley re-zoned as Hendon

Here is the text of a recently received email:

Dear Mr Mustard

You recently successfully appealed a PCN for my husband. I have today received a PCN on my car parked outside my house in Finchley, displaying its permit. What I didn’t realise until closely inspecting the permit is that although it is up to date the area is HC2 and not FN. I’ve had a permit for this car since they were introduced and have renewed it on time each year. I just didn’t notice that the zone was incorrect this time. I would hope that this is excellent grounds for a successful appeal…!

Can you advise me what to do?

Mr Mustard did advise what to do and the PCN was quickly cancelled as it was, not to put too fine a point on it, complete rollocks. The council issue the wrong permit to a resident of 23 years who has had the same car for 9 years so why should they check the council has done its job properly as that is the least one is entitled to expect and what the resident has paid for.

So now as well as checking your permit is in date you had better check it has the correct zone identification letters on it such that they are the same as the ones on the signs in your street. How a North Finchley resident (FN) got a permit with the letters HC2 (a sub section of Hendon central) is a complete mystery although this is the second time that Mr Mustard has come across the problem, the last time the resident did live in Hendon and simply received the wrong Hendon zone permit and it took months to sort out. Perhaps the council is getting better at sorting out its cock-ups given how many it makes?

Mr Mustard wonders if the permit zone defaults to a particular zone or to the last one used whereas it should default to null and force the processor to input one. Having been given the idea here, Mr Mustard is sure the council will sit up and take notice. There is zero tolerance on errors in parking so 100% of permits should be correctly issued.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard