Redbridge Council try it on

 

The above still image from the council cctv is where the vehicle stopped, the car with the brake lights on. That was enough to get Redbridge Council excited, £160 more in the pot they thought, Mr Mustard didn't think so as there was pots of space to move forward. The PCN may have been issued by computer without a person watching the cctv or giving it much thought if they did.

Rolling back a few seconds, this was the situation on entry.

Mr Mustard made the representations against the PCN, a PCN that should not have existed.

oops, chopped the word 'spent' off the end whilst removing the client's name.

Redbridge Council put the system into reverse pretty quickly and cancelled. They could have written a more gracious and explanatory acceptance and naturally they ignored the hard part, about discipline and retraining.

Problems with some of these cases are that cars are leased and the lease company pays up and recharges the client together with an administration fee without considering if the alleged contravention is made out.

Don't stand for nonsense, give councils both (written) barrels.

The end.

Horrible Havering

 

The PCN from the above is an extract was a pretty standard document. What wasn't standard was the state of the yellow box at the point at which the allegedly contravening car entered it.

It is impossible to commit a yellow box contravention (entering and stopping die to a stationary vehicle) if there isn't another vehicle in sight! That didn't stop Havering, they must have hoped the motorist would be a mug, far from it, he knows Mr Mustard.

Three seconds later, this was the scene 

Still not another car in sight, still not a contravention, the car is clearly stopped so that the words on the yellow sign can be digested.

Mr Mustard made the formal representations which said this.

When the situation is patently absurd no point in writing lots of words as surely the most inept council officer will realise an error has been made?

Apparently not! 

Mr Mustard didn't hesitate, he started an Appeal at London Tribunals. 

That was on 11 April.

The hearing was listed for 25 June.

On 12 June Havering Council realised they were in for a bruising and cancelled the PCN.

Their ability to decide whether a PCN has occurred is inadequate unless of course it was their computer which decided in which case it needs reprogramming.

The decision to reject the representation was made by a complete nincompoop.

The only goods news to come out of this is that the North London Hospice will get £65 which is the sum Mr Mustard bet the motorist that the Appeal would be won.

If Mr Mustard wins the motorist pays the £65 to the Hospice not to Mr Mustard.

If Mr Mustard loses he pays £65 to the motorist make up for the lost discount.

Mr Mustard rarely pay outs as he rarely loses when he offers this deal, at his own discretion.

The end 

Big Bus - small box

 

This is another decision which Mr Mustard found at random. It has some interesting points to note.

 Here is an aerial view of the location.

The bus has a problem in clearing the junction as from the driver's seat it is a long way to the back of the bus to be certain you have cleared the box. The benefit of the doubt should be given to the bus driver in any event and also if it isn't certain that the bus actually stopped, an enforcement authority must have a 'belief' that they did so, there should be no doubt.

The problem for the bus driver is that the bus is almost three cars long so whilst the driver patiently waits in lane 1 for a three car length space to appear, any car in lane 2 can perfectly properly change from lane 2 to lane 1 and keep 'taking' the bus's space. Given that this is in Piccadilly, the bus could be there for ages.

The adjudicator has succinctly expressed the problems with the City of Westminster's case. He could also have added, but didn't need to, that the box extends beyond the confines of the junction on both sides, so if you have passed a line drawn across Piccadilly from the kerb line in Bolton Street and you have stopped after that you have not stopped within the junction which is the point of the box. It should not have been painted this way.

The end.

Bluff and nonsense in Redbridge

A double decker bus weighs between 11 and 14 metric tonnes. Will you therefore play chicken with it when two lanes go into one and you might end up impaled on a traffic island and traffic light? No, nor would Mr Mustard.

Miss Careful (not her real name) came to Mr Mustard for help as she had been sent a PCN for stopping in a box junction. She did stop, but to avoid being squashed and possibly killed. Redbridge Council have a video of the way in which she crossed the box which clearly confirms the facts. In order to preserve secrecy Mr Mustard is just going to give you 5 stills from the cctv, in time order, from which you can see what happened.

Where is the car? You may well ask, masked by the bus.

The car still isn't visible

Now, finally you can see the car

In this frame you can see that the car has sensibly given way to the bus

Onwards we all go

Mr Mustard made the representations as follows and set out the law to save the council the bother of looking it up:

Lots of representations get rejected for two reasons. The first is that the person considering the matter doesn't know what they are doing. The second is that many recipients of rejections worry about the discount, which Mr Mustard doesn't as he is aiming to pay nothing at all, and meekly pay up if knocked back. Mr Mustard is not meek.

An uninformed rejection duly arrived:

The exit probably was clear on entry but the cctv doesn't show it and it does clearly show bullying behaviour by the bus and that the stop was not caused by a stationary vehicle.

Mr Mustard ploughed on, much like the bus, an unstoppable force. He started an Appeal to the tribunal. Redbridge threw in the towel because they could see they were going to lose.

It shouldn't be like this.

The PCN should never have been sent. If the car was leased the PCN might have been paid by the lease company which would penalise an innocent driver.

The Notice of Rejection should never have been sent as it didn't impartially consider the facts.

The message for motorists is that if you think you are correct you should ignore the discount and continue to the tribunal stage where you will get a fair hearing from an adjudicator who does not seek to benefit from a refusal, as councils do.

The end.

Redbridge Council - boxes its own ears

Mr Mustard's ears prick up when he sees a Council v Council entry on the tribunal website and he asks the council for all the paperwork behind the PCN. He doesn't always get it all but he gets enough to show the idiocy of the PCN system. In this case the council didn't fight the tribunal Appeal which it started against itself.

Here is the PCN.

There is no profit to be had from this PCN, it is simply a case of moving money from one council budget to another one, or not.

 

Mr Mustard didn't get a copy of the representations which were supposedly exempt but it doesn't really matter, they won't have been that radical.

Mr Mustard did get the video and here it is.

 

He was sent the rejection notice.

The rejection is a dismal piece of work because what you can't see in the video is the exit of the box so no-one knows why the vehicle stopped and the reason has to be because of stationary vehicles, what vehicles? There aren't any in shot. Adjudicators cancel PCNs for this reason all the time.

Mr Mustard went up and down Ley Street on google. It is rather long. Mr Mustard only found one yellow box, viz:

Where is this? It is at the entrance to the council depot. Mr Mustard wonders if the necessary steps were followed before the council painted a box intended to aid their workers but which they now use to penalise their workers? Laurel and Hardy have some competition it seems.

Mr Mustard did ask if the camera had been adjusted to better show the box and the answer was that it had.

Mr Mustard also asked how many PCNs the council had issued to itself in the year ended 31 March 2023. The answer was 107.

Mr Mustard also asked if the motorists caught in that box, which was inadequately covered by camera, would be refunded and of course the answer was 'no'.

There is little honour in Redbridge.

The end.

Kingston Road, New Malden - yellow box exceeds junction

Mr Mustard came across this junction on the PePiPoo web forum, odd name but very useful site.

It is in the Kingston Road, New Malden at the junction with Elm Road (google street view is out of date so this is a relatively recent change).

The red sign says 'Give priority to Pedestrians and Cyclists at side road' which to Mr Mustard's eyes is unclear. Mr Mustard thinks it means give priority to pedestrians crossing the road at the give way markings and also give priority to cyclists who are riding along the cycle lane and going straight on if a motor vehicle wants to turn left across their path. Mr Mustard doesn't think the sign helps. Mr Mustard loves the double yellows though and loading ban (double kerb blips) but suspects they should be inside the cycle lane (Mr Mustard waits for comments to tell him he is wrong about that as he hasn't opened any of his signage guides). They should stop blue badge holders from parking there though.

Mr Mustard thinks that the yellow box is too long at both ends as if you extend the imaginary lines from the edges of the carriageway in Elm Road (the side road on the left) they would remove a car length of box at both ends. A yellow box junction should be placed, in the context of this location, 'at a junction between two or more roads' and Mr Mustard thinks that all of his readers, and for their part adjudicators, would agree that the green circle above is outside of the junction and therefore any car that stops there is not committing a contravention.

If you have a PCN at this location, or a tribunal hearing booked, and got caught at one end or the other of the box, please email mrmustard@zoho.com for free help.

The end.

 

Barnet put a PCN camera at a goldmine

Mr Mustard recently read his first tribunal decision at a new location 'Ballards Lane Junction With Nether Street And Chaville' which is the crossroads adjacent to Finchley Central tube station. Whilst there is an exemption for turning right and being prevented by other vehicles waiting to turn right, he can see this is going to be problematic as the road is painted to allow a right turn from the middle lane and it is easy for the car in the right hand lane to block your exit because it is has to swing and is accordingly much wider that when alongside. People are going to get stuck as they can't see what their exit is like and the merciless cctv computer will be churning PCNs out by the thousand.

Mr Mustard will avoid turning right from Nether Street into Regents Park Road (i.e. over the tube bridge). If you look like you might get stuck, just go straight on, turn around in front of the tube station and then come back up to the lights and turn left. You will save yourself £130.

The turn right markings should be changed to remove the right turn advice from the middle lane.

The end.

Barnet Council - a costly assumption

This decision has been brought to Mr Mustard's attention by a friend who is looking at all costs award cases in the last couple of years at the tribunal. Barnet only had the one which is more a reflection of how hard it is to get a costs award than of their good behaviour.

This is the yellow box near Sainsburys in North Finchley. If turning left off the High Road it is now in the Highway Code that a motorist should let a pedestrian cross so we might see some more PCNs like this one.

The amount awarded is still less than the value of the PCN (£130). Every PCN found to be wrong should be the subject of a fixed costs award, that would bring some balance to a lop-sided system.

End

Waltham Forest - where they make up contraventions

Please watch this cctv clip and the car that turns left.

Could you see a contravention taking place? The motorist, Mr Y, didn't think so and was somewhat surprised to receive a PCN. One has to wonder if a person actually looked at the footage or if they simply clicked yes to every possible contravention clip that the computer selected.

Mr Y sent in very measured representations:

Dear Council,

I am challenging the PCN as there was no contravention of the regulations governing box junctions.

As I turned left onto Queens Rd (from Markhouse Road), my back wheels got stuck in the YBJ for a few seconds due to me giving way to initially pedestrians crossing the road that (I could not see before I took the left around the corner) and then an oncoming car that had slightly veered into my side of the road.

So I had to wait and then move.

Please kindly cancel the PCN.

Shockingly, or not depending on how many terrible rejections you have read, the council rejected the representations. They went on for three pages much of which was irrelevant boilerplate to cover all eventualities. At this point Mr Mustard took over and wrote the Grounds of Appeal to the tribunal, the place where a legally qualified and independent lawyer properly applies the law without fear or favour or any financial interest in the outcome.

Mr Mustard expects you have guessed what happened next. Waltham Forest Council decided (wisely) not to contest the Appeal at the independent tribunal but to cancel the PCN instead.

The worrying aspects of this case are:

1 - the fact that a PCN got issued in the first place.

2 - the fact that perfect representations were rejected

3 - the fact that 90% of the public would have paid up in ignorance of their rights and assumed the council must know what they are on about (they may do but choose instead to try to baffle you with bull$hit) or they may employ people who don't know what they are doing as there isn't any remedy against any council getting things totally wrong.

4 - It appears that Waltham Forest Council expect you to mow down pedestrians rather than stop safely (as advised in the Highway Code at a junction).

If in doubt, get expert help, for free. Mr Y found his on PePiPoo. Odd name but a great site for good free help.

The end.

Up the junction in Enfield

Is this a valid yellow box junction? Needless to say Enfield Council are still issuing PCNs here, at the supposed junction of Southbury Road and Eaton Road but clearly there isn't a junction, so there isn't a need to keep the area clear, although most people where, but the light blue car owner was sent a PCN.

A 'box junction' (at this locale) means 'an area of carriageway where the marking has been placed and which is at a junction between two or more roads'. 

That is the case normally whilst Eaton Road is open to traffic but Mr Mustard would argue firstly that if you can't drive down enter or exit Eaton Rd then temporarily there is no junction and there is, of course, no traffic management purpose to any PCNs issued whilst the side road is coned off. The only effect of leaving the camera running is to raise revenue.

Mr Mustard has been agitating for some time about the way that moving traffic systems work. The cctv computer controlled camera watches the footage 24/7 and selects clips which the computer programmer defines as a contravention and once a day a person is meant to watch the clips and come to a reasoned decision that a contravention did take place and that a PCN should be issued.

It is possible to automate the entire process of issuing such PCNs and Mr Mustard thinks that may be happening. Alternatively the people who watch the clips simply say yes to everything. There is no common sense. Mr Mustard thinks that operators assume the cctv is correct, of course the motorist is guilty, and ticks yes to a PCN.

This is the sort of immoral behaviour we have come to expect from the private parking sector, a local authority should be beyond criticism at all times.

Enfield Council - hang your heads in shame and pro-actively cancel all PCNs and refund monies paid for any PCNs issued during the days when access was not possible.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Enfield's response:

 

Parking Services were not made aware* of the closure of Eton (sic, Eaton) Road by our Highways Department and only found out last week.  We went through a process of cancelling all 247 PCNs which was completed on the 4^th October.  We have received a communication from your neighbour which was logged on our system on 6^th Ocotber. The case was reopened this morning to send a response to confirm that the PCN has been cancelled and case is now closed again.

*Parking must all use public transport to get to work then? Mr M.

Common sense has prevailed.

Yellow box junction - quiz 2

Watch the cctv and the black car which exits to the left hand lane but does not quite leave the box.

Leaving aside the moral question of whether a car minding its own business & not causing any delay to anybody should be sent a ticket, Barnet Council thought the driver (car owner receives it) deserved one (or perhaps just their computer did even though Mr Mustard is assured that all cctv is checked by a person before issuing a PCN, an assurance which he doesn't have much faith in) the question is

'Was a contravention committed?'

Here are the Regulations:

The prize for getting this correct is that you won't get PCNs in the future (mean Mr Mustard!).

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard