A voucher is not the same as a permit; NSL please note.

One of Mr Mustard's friends had a workman in. She gave the workman five Visitor Parking Vouchers to use from 6 to 10 July inclusive. On 7 July, Mr Mustard noticed a PCN on his van. It had been issued because the workman still had the visitor voucher for 6 July on display, an easy mistake to make when a workman is mentally planning the work for the day ahead.

Here is an extract of the PCN.

In the case of a code 19 PCN it is necessary for extra information to be provided in brackets as to the exact contravention alleged. That is because the legislation requires the traffic warden to state "the grounds" on which a contravention is believed to have occurred and not a list of possible contraventions. (emphasis added by Mr Mustard).

Clearly in this case the traffic warden thinks that an out of date permit was being displayed. There was not a resident permit, or any other type of permit, on display.

Mr Mustard sent a challenge to the council (NSL get them to look at first):

He was not displaying an out of date permit, as alleged, as he wasn't displaying a permit at all (as Mr Workman is not a Barnet resident and does not qualify for a permit).

It follows therefore that the contravention simply did not occur and you must therefore cancel the PCN.

Here is what Mr Mustard got back, quite quickly for once:

The council need to be more careful than they are.

The council accept there was an invalid (as in out of date "ood") voucher on display.

They then repeat Mr Mustard's challenge but fudge the wording by changing "permit" to "permit/voucher" which completely changes the meaning of the challenge. Permits and Vouchers are both defined in the Traffic Management Order which the council wrote.

A contravention did occur, but not the one they issued the PCN for, which has not been issued correctly and you can't be punished for the wrong contravention, no matter how much you might deserve a PCN for the correct contravention.

Could this sort of ineptitude be why Mr Mustard's PCN success rate against Barnet Council in 2015 is Won 82 Lost 2?

The problem is that Barnet Council and/or NSL can write complete rubbish to the average motorist and get away with it because most motorists don't know enough about parking law or fight PCN to the end often enough, many wrongly believe the council will be correct? and also because there isn't any sanction for misleading the motorist.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Update: 20 July 2015.

Parking management stepped in at Mr Mustard's request, reviewed what NSL had decided upon, found they agreed with Mr Mustard and cancelled the PCN.

Mr Workman is donating to the hospice.

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

Ed gets £80,472 p.a. to write guff

what sort of website wouldn't be online? Croydon Council are the complete masters of writing loads and saying nothing but Barnet are catching on. Look at this rubbish on the Inside Croydon blog. This is all such vague stuff that Mr Mustard can barely be bothered to get his red pen out. Now for the second division councilspeak offering from One Barnet Tuesday, 12 June 2012 at 14:42 - Schroder, Johnathan What next for the Corporate Change Programme? The council is starting to think about the next wave of corporate change programmes. A series of strategic reviews are being conducted which are cross-cutting and inter-linked. Can't we just cut your post Mr Gowan? These reviews will examine: community safety; early intervention and prevention; health and social care integration; leisure; and the street scene. Ed Gowan, assistant director of commercial transformation, said: "These strategic reviews are the next stage in the transformation of Barnet. We are beginning to build upon what has been achieved so far by the One Barnet Programme by looking beyond the mechanics of how we deliver services to identifying where we can improve the lives of residents. The council wants to make sure that our resources are focussed on what residents need and that we can facilitate communities taking ownership of some of these issues for themselves." "These reviews are very much part of the 'one public sector' approach as they will necessitate working closely with other public sector partners in the police, NHS, probation, and across many directorates of the council itself. As ever, the council will be driving for efficiency by mapping how much public money is spent across the large number of bodies involved with these five areas, and sharing resources and reducing duplication where possible. The council will also look to be customer-centric by assessing whether it is meeting all the needs and expectations of residents." These strategic reviews are in their early stages. A business case will be developed for each of these reviews. It will be requested under Freedom of Information legislation. See future editions of First Team for further updates. Mr Mustard has his log-in and will keep an eye out. Yours frugally Mr Mustard

Wharfe is acting up

Sometimes Mr Mustard thinks that Barnet Council is just a fictional body, as it bears about as much resemblance to a well run council as Allo Allo does to its subject matter.

So here we go with another presumably motivational message to staff. Mr Mustard still doesn't get why these messages are sent at all. Couldn't Nick have written it before he waltzed off to Ally Pally? From: First Team Sent: 04 May 2012 15:20 To: AllStaff Subject: Weekly message - Pam Wharfe, Interim Director for Environment, Planning and Regeneration Additions in Red by Mr Mustard. Nick has asked me to write the weekly message as he is at Alexandra Palace in his role as Returning Officer for Barnet and Camden in the GLA elections. Which got off to a very bad start as the electricity was cut off before 9am. Somebody must have fallen down on their contingency planning. The end of the day didn't go well either as the Councillor who Pam Wharfe has to deal with is the Cabinet member for the Environment, Brian Coleman, who has been unseated as the Assembly Member for Barnet & Camden. Best stay out of the way of the member for now, he was looking a bit grim faced at the count. Most of my week has been tied up with the implementation of the One Barnet programme. So my day to day job is probably quite neglected otherwise why did it exist in the first place? Monday was the last full day of the parking staff working directly for the council as they transferred to NSL and RR Donnelly on Tuesday. We had an informal farewell on Monday organised by their colleagues for the staff working in NLBP and the Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) had an event last week. It is also no secret that most of the staff currently working in the back office will be made redundant. On Tuesday staff have to report to the NSL Office in Solar House in Finchley where they will be handed ‘at risk of redundancy’ letters. NSL will say goodbye to them properly for us. Did I mention that we managed to completely cock up the transfer of data and give out personal data in error to contractors and the wrong staff? No, how careless of someone, not me, of course. On Wednesday I met with Tracey Lees (Chief Executive) and Deep Sagar (Chair) from the Barnet Group to discuss how things are going with the transfer of Housing Needs staff and looking ahead to how we can work together to address various challenges facing the council. Suspect that the challenge facing the staff is much greater. Housing workers were transferred to Barnet Homes and went straight into a restructure consultation. Tracey in passing said she had noticed that the CEOs out and about in North Finchley had smart new uniforms. Why is Tracey talking about parking staff when she has housing staff to worry about. This is a striking comparison to my first winter when I was responsible for the service and we discovered we couldn't actually provide enough coats for all the staff. I admit that in my first winter I failed to properly provide protective clothing for staff working outdoors all day in very bad conditions and despite the council having an annual budget of £900m I couldn't manage my budget well enough to look after them.  This is a practical example that shows the new provider has a better understanding about how to run this service. This is a striking example of how we Directors will say absolutely anything at all, no matter what utter tosh it is, to try and justify the One Barnet programme which staff don't believe in and which residents don't believe in, which has been pulled apart by Professor Dexter Whitfield. Are we really expected to believe that the council was so short of money out of its £900m p.a. budget that it sent traffic wardens out in bad weather without suitable protective clothing? What rot.  If it was Mr Mustard earning being paid £132,480 a year he would pop out himself and buy Barnet Bugle / Dan Hope style Drizabone hats and coats for them out of his own pocket. Please stop putting out this propaganda nonsense drivel which the staff treat with hoots of derision. Council Directors Group was also focussed on the One Barnet Programme this week and clearing some of the Wave 2 projects to go forward to the council. Oh no, Wave 1 was bad enough and now hear comes wave 2. When will we wave goodbye to the foolish management who think that One Barnet is a good idea? Final paragraph about a staff funeral has been redacted out of consideration for the family. Pam Why is Pam doing the message anyway. She has been caught out on placing orders for the removal of parking meters without a proper contract and RM Countryside had over a £1m out of her department without proper process having been followed and is only an "interim" (for now) Director so why is she stepping up into Nick's shoes. Just as a complete aside can anyone tell Mr Mustard if this Pam Wharfe is the same Pam Wharfe who was a labour councillor in Hounslow Central until 19 October 2000 (don't tell Brian Coleman he has a former Labour Councillor in charge of his portfolio, he probably isn't very keen on them at the moment)  London Borough Council Elections 2002 Mr Mustard already knew that Pam was "in charge" as he received an out of office from non-stick as follows: I am on election duties on Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th May.Pam Wharfe is deputising for me. For any urgent items please contact the Executive Office on 0208 359 7001. Nick Walkley Chief Executive Where is the Deputy Chief Executive, Andrew, "Black Hole", " £1000 a day" Travers? He hasn't been seen much in the building and it seems that some other council might have been charmed into opening their coffers to him.  Where is the Assistant Chief Executive, Julie Taylor? We haven't seen much of her either. She is still on the corporate structure chart but what is she up to?  As a member of the Human Givens Institute she might be better with people? She couldn't be worse and she probably doesn't communicate by email but by talking to people. The human givens approach enables people to think more clearly about a wide range of social issues to do with the running of society and the future and physical survival of our species. Come back Nick, all is forgiven (well not quite all but you get the idea). Yours frugally Mr Mustard