Legislation is written on the basis that a body given a power will use it in a reasonable manner. The faceless bureaucrats and contractors who wield the power have stopped caring what the public thinks and will dish out a PCN for any trivial contravention.
This car with the roof bars is in contravention if he stopped because of a stationary vehicle. You, the reader, already think that sending a PCN through the post to the keeper of this car is rather excessive as they could have stopped further forward which is what leads to the escape from the PCN, they stopped before the stationary vehicle and good reasons amusingly accepted by the older adjudicators as good reasons to stop and thus cancel the PCN were to 'light your pipe', 'read a newspaper' or 'admire the view'.
Mr Mustard has made the representation that the driver chose to stop where they did and could have exited had they chosen to and that in any event the alleged contravention is 'de minimis non curate lex' i.e. too trivial a matter for the law to concern itself with. Time will tell if this ends up at the tribunal or not.
This sort of PCN, trying to pilfer £160 out of the pocket of the motorist, shouldn't see the light of day and many lease companies would just pay it and thus remove the possibility of challenge from the keeper. That is why we need an Ombudsman to use the powers they could be granted to stop this sort of thing before it starts, to remove the worst excesses of council behaviour as the council itself won't do so, it is too profitable.
The end.
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