Parking appeals - 8 to 20 months later

Mr Mustard is indebted to the Barnet Bugle (who is usually at interesting meetings with his camera so that important matters get recorded) for these extracts neatly edited together of last night's full council meeting. They show Cllr Alan Schneiderman asking serious supplementary questions about the PATAS parking ticket Appeal statistics for the year to March 14 and Cllr Dean Cohen vaguely promising action at some unspecified future date. Although the figures were only published last month, the council tracked them throughout the year so they shouldn't have been news to Dean and thus putting a plan in place in November 14 is rather slow work.

Mr Mustard only accounted for about 2% of the Appeals to PATAS.

Dean's replies were without substance. That isn't how the democratic process should work. Dean should have been able to say what actual steps were being taken to file evidence packs in more cases, get fewer Appeals in the first place and increase the success rate. Did he not know?

The arrival of a permanent parking manager, as opposed to a passing through interim, has seen a number of technical paperwork errors be corrected and so, as it happens, the council success rate will go up once the erroneous notices have worked their way through the system.

If you are reading Dean and want to see some PATAS cases being heard you can simply turn up there at Angel, Islington on any working day or Saturday morning (not Wednesday afternoon) and watch any hearing as a member of the public. You could see how a number of boroughs perform as against Barnet. If you want to sit in on any Appeals for which Mr Mustard is the representative do send him an email and he'll tell you when there is a good list of cases. Mr Mustard currently has 4 cases at 10am on 4 December (one against Hackney and three against Barnet) but Barnet may throw the towel in before then, as is customary, so best to check first.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

PATAS 2013/14 - Huge increase in parking appeals

News from Labour

London Borough of Barnet Labour Group

We’re on your side

For immediate release 

1 November 2014

Huge increase in parking appeals

Figures just released by the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service (PATAS) show that the number of appeals against parking tickets issued by Barnet Council has risen by 45% and is now the second highest out of all London boroughs.

In 2013-14, there were 3,470 formal appeals against penalty charge notices (PCNs) issued by Barnet Council, up from 2,393 in 2012-13.  This is even higher than the 3,235 appeals against PCNs issued by Westminster Council tickets, a borough covering central London and which issues far more tickets.

The figures also show that Barnet lost almost 60% of its cases at PATAS, one of the worst records in London. In answer to a question submitted by Labour’s environment spokesperson, Councillor Alan Schneiderman, the Council has revealed that in hundreds of cases it doesn't defend its case and the resident’s parking fines are simply written off.  And in some cases, the Council contests the appeal but then fails to submit any evidence leading to parking adjudicators making an automatic judgement in favour of the resident.

Cllr Schneiderman said: “Barnet has been treating motorists as a cash cow for too long and these figures prove it.  A huge rise in the number of appeals is bad enough but the fact that the Council loses almost 60% of appeals - and fails to defend hundreds of them is proof that too many tickets are unfairly issued.”

“It’s time for the Tories to admit that the outsourced parking service has failed and we should look at bringing it back under Council control.”

Ends.

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Notes:

1.    The Parking and Traffic Appeal Service (PATAS) considers appeals against Penalty Charge Notices issued by all London local authorities.

2.    The appeal statistics for 2012-13 and 2013-14 can be found on the PATAS website: PATAS Annual Report

3.    Council Questions to the Leader can be found on Barnet’s website at: Full council meeting 4 November 14

Councillor Schneiderman’s questions are Nos 8, 38 and 54.

Parking in Barnet - Focus group messages

Focus

Although the Questions to and answers from the Leader of the council (not all answered by him, just what they are called) are full of pointless petty political point scoring (The Barnet Council chamber is not the House of Commons) the odd sensible question and answer do appear, like this one from Tuesday 6 April 14:

Question 26 Councillor Alan Schneiderman

Has the Cabinet Member now had time to identify the key messages coming out of the parking focus groups held in December and January; and if so what are they?

Answer by Councillor Dean Cohen

Yes and the key messages are as follows:

1. That we should relax enforcement – Civil Enforcement Officers are considered to be “ruthless and inflexible” (Absolutely no surprise there)

2. Free or cheap parking – free parking for 15-30 minutes are suggested in shopping streets and centres (what a good idea)

3. Straightforward payment methods (by which people probably meant cash)

4. Level of fines – it is suggested that there should be reduced car parking fines (but this is not under the Council’s control.) (Actually it is, the council could choose to accept the 50% rate at any time as they have a wide discretion. It would be an interesting experiment to see if compliance improved and payment collection percentages increased)

5. Council Policy and Engagement – This supports the development of a comprehensive parking policy and further engagement but suggested that residents would also like to have reviews of all controls and that we should provide additional parking.

6. Controlled parking – residents are concerned about the “myriad of variations in restrictions” so clearly we need to better explain the need for locally appropriate controls (or have less myriad variations)

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Trying to "cash in" on parking

On a Monday evening Mr Mustard has an open invitiation for a free dinner and unsurprisingly tries to take advantage of it. He also has the pleasure of watching University Challenge as his is a household without TV. Conversation and wine also flow.

Some Monday evenings he has competing entertainments to prioritise. Next Monday, 7 October, is such an evening as there is a meeting of the Business Management Overview & Scrutiny Committee (yes, it is too exciting for words). There are two interesting items on the agenda. The first is this one put forward by Cllr Alan Schneiderman and it will be interesting if the council's overly radical "no on-street cash payments for parking" policy will get tested.

The second notable item is about the Saracens Event day CPZ zone. There is one minor tinker in a road but apparently it is otherwise fine. Well we wouldn't want the income stream, from 403 PCN per event day, to reduce now would we?

So Mr Mustard will see you in Hendon Town Hall on Monday at 7pm.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

A traffic warden is a complete liar.

On Monday Mr Mustard attended the Budget & Performance Overview and Scrutiny Committee. It is not as dry as you might think. Mr Mustard was there because he has been expecting the budget to be broken for 2 years because the way the council was overrun with consultants and temps had to eventually have consequences. All those Judicial Reviews for radical and/or stupid decisions also carry a fair cost. The Special Parking Account is short by £1,081,000

There were also other items on the agenda like reviews of parking in North Finchley (with Edgware and Chipping Barnet to be reported to the committee soon).

That item led to Cllr Alan Schneiderman, who is in opposition but is always working hard asking questions about parking, as it is in his shadow portfolio, wanting 30 minutes free parking in town centres (some ruling councillors agreed but with the hole in the budget that would create it will be a long time coming) and he also wanted less zealous enforcement. The Director of Place, Pam Wharfe, went into Yes Minister mode and said that he should of course bring her examples of such a thing and she would look at the specifics. Of course the whole of Barnet knows that enforcement in 2012-13 was much worse than in 2011-12, you only have to look at the 25% increase in the number of PCN to see that or read this blog but hey, let us help Ms Wharfe out. Here is the report of an adjudication that took place at PATAS very recently, it is case number 2130357773.

The appellant, who appeared before me today, said that his vehicle had been parked outside his house he being unable to move it because its battery was flat he submitting that there was a fault with the battery he maintaining his vehicle properly he stating that the whole of the incident had been filmed by a cctv camera installed in his premises he having put that footage on his iPhone he playing it to me at the hearing.

The footage showed the appellant pushing the vehicle from its parking space the attendant being at the location on a bike & not as he claimed serving the notice by handing it to the driver the appellant pushing his vehicle away from the location the attendant leaving it. It was clear on that footage that the attendant had been untruthful about that aspect of his evidence.

I was satisfied that the appellant had been prevented from moving his vehicle through circumstances beyond his control finding that the exemption in this regard applied and found that the penalty charge notice had not been served.

So there we have it. Proof from a member of the public that one Civil Enforcement Officer (on a scooter so that cuts it down a bit) or traffic warden as they are commonly known, is a lying toerag.

From the PATAS report you can see the PCN number, AG32027447, and from that the council can look up the badge number of the warden. Then Mr Mustard might suggest stripping him/her of his/her badge (actually Mr Mustard has only seen male scooter riders) and epaulettes and sending him/her on their way as we do not want dishonest traffic wardens in Barnet.

However, it probably isn't the traffic warden's fault. We are forever being told that there aren't targets for the issue of PCN but there almost certainly is pressure on CEOs to issue a certain number of tickets otherwise the budget for parking income will not be met (there is that small matter of a million pound shortfall) and NSL have been under pressure for their performance with KPI not being met in the year to March 13. Mr Mustard is more inclined to think that NSL put terrible pressure on the traffic wardens to dish out parking tickets and thus this sort of behaviour happens. Mr Mustard is sure wardens are not instructed to cheat but they are certainly issuing more marginal and/or questionable parking tickets and leaving the motorist to appeal their way out of the problem. Without cctv it is the motorist's word against the traffic warden's.

Luckily our honest hero motorist, who lives in Park Road (not sure which one, there are four Park Roads in Barnet?) provided incontrovertible evidence. There is absolutely no reason to suppose that this is the only case of cheating by a traffic warden.

If the motorist is reading this you have a perfect case for claiming costs as the council has been wholly unreasonable or vexatious in issuing and pursuing the PCN.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

"Investment" = borrowing from Capita

http://icelandwordpress.com/

The following email although addressed to Cllr Robert Rams was sent to all 63 councilllors:

8 December 2012

Dear Cllr Rams

I have seen your letter (above) in the Barnet Times in which you claim that the "Council has acted responsibly" a self-delusional title with which I profoundly disagree.

Your letter is mostly a pathetic party political point scoring exercise which is unattractive and irrelevant ( as Labour are not in control of the town hall so all that currently matters is the lash-up that you and your colleagues are making of running the council ) and is based upon the spurious notion that Capita are some sort of generous benefactor who are pumping money into Barnet out of the goodness of their hearts. The money being spent on IT is not a gift from Capita, nor is it an investment, it is simply the routine procurement of more modern computers and systems ( hopefully no more of the hated and inefficient tablets ) and as ever there isn't a comprehensive breakdown in the business case although there is a claimed "investment" of £17.5m of which only £7m is clearly identifiable as being on IT as the table from the business case shows:

So where are you getting the money to update the IT system?

Oh, it's from Capita who are providing the funding.

Will they want their money back or is it a gift?

Capita will be repaid through the "core service payments made by the council."

Your criticism that Labour would borrow £13.5m and so they cannot be trusted with taxpayers' money is thus worthless drivel as you plan to borrow even more money.

I can see someone whose word cannot be trusted and it isn't Cllr Alan Schneiderman of Labour, is it Robert? It is you.

I don't expect to hear any member of the Cabinet ever again say that Capita have invested £millions in the council IT as if it is a benevolent gesture. It isn't. Capita have simply made a commercial decision to give the council credit. Is interest being paid?

I am not, and never have been, a member of the Labour Party.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard