This is a common scenario. You are the parent of a young child, you drive to school, you have to take them to the school gates or even into the building to make sure they are safe. This will take from 1 to 5 minutes. A traffic warden appears from apparently nowhere (but they do of course know where schools are and the good times for easy pickings) waits for zero seconds and issues a PCN. (The observed to and from times are the same).
An informal challenge (the name given to your response to the PCN before the issue of a Notice to owner) should be cancelled was made as follows:
Sometimes the council ask for proof of schooling but on this occasion they didn't. They simply rejected the challenge, made by the motorist themselves, outright as no exemption could apply.
That seems clear to Mr Mustard.
The danger is that the public rely on what a council says and expect it to be the truth. In this case Mr Mustard was advising the motorist in the background so should a blatant wrong isn't going to get the council anywhere. What worries Mr Mustard is how many similar and perfectly valid claims have been rejected by the council (NSL) and the motorist has subsequently paid up and lost their £55.
This exemption is one of the most common ones. How can Barnet Council get it so wrong? Oh, they want the revenue, is the suspicion.
Yours frugally
Mr Mustard
I'd be tempted to vote with the council on this one unless the parent and/or child have severe mobility impairments.
ReplyDeleteThere is plenty of free, non-obstructive parking around that school. If a double-yellow has been painted onto the road it is presumably because that is a stupid place to park.
For the sake of walking about a hundred yards, another parking place could probably be found. Even if not, no one has the right to park wherever they like. (Although a large number of people believe they have that right.)
Does it really count as assisted boarding to put a child into a car? If they're extremely young, carry them or use a pushchair to get to the car. If they're older, they can walk a short distance.
I'm normally a big fan of your work but I fail to see the merit in this case.
Yellow lines are often put in place to facilitate the dropping of or picking passengers or the loading and unloading of goods. Who ever wrote the letter from the council needs to read and understand the highway code.
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