Mr Mustard briefly looked at this short policy. Firstly the word 'appeal' is the wrong word, that means an Appeal to the independent adjudicator at London Tribunals. What Ealing Council should have written was 'representation' and if they wanted a simpler word 'challenge' would have been a better one.
Of the six points on the first page where mitigation may apply, Mr Mustard takes issue with numbers 2, 4 and 6. They are reasons why a contravention simply did not occur rather than mitigating circumstances. Strip those out and there aren't so many exercises of discretion going on.
Mr Mustard noticed the same error as was in Croydon Council's document, the use of the phrase 'bone fide'. It is best not to put Latin phrases in official documents if you don't know how to spell them. The word 'genuine' would have been a safer choice.
What the same error tells us though is that neither Croydon nor Ealing did refer to their legal departments as otherwise that schoolboy spelling error would have been picked up.
It also appears to Mr Mustard that it is probably the contractor rather than the council who have set the policies on the exercise of discretion. If so, that is wrong.
The end.
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