Pull the wool?

You've got to be good to pull the wool over Mr Mustard's eyes.

His client paid to park in the Golders Green Road, she forgot she was driving her husband's car and so paid for her own one. Needless to say she received a PCN. She challenged the PCN and then the Notice to Owner on the not unreasonable grounds that the council had not lost out. She was rejected twice.

For the tribunal appeal Mr Mustard's help was sought. He filed an Appeal which was partly on the grounds that the bay sign did not tell you that you could use a parking meter, at which it is impossible to pay for the wrong car as a registration number is not required (and you are unlikely to place the machine receipt in the wrong car!).

Here is the relevant section of the council's case summary:

PbP = PayByPhone

and here is the plan they produced of the area showing the parking restriction signs

No parking meters on that plan.

Mr Mustard went to the council's maps and extracted another version just a little further down the road and oh, guess what, there is a parking meter which was just off the page in the council's evidence to the tribunal.

ooh, a parking meter at the other end of the bay.

A coincidence, an outright lie or just an unfortunate oversight? Mr Mustard will be filing a complaint with the council that he has been lied to.

The other interesting fact about this PCN is that the motorist paid £2.10 to park for an hour (including the optional 10p text reminder which Mr Mustard does not opt for as it is poor value being 5% of the parking charge) and then extended for 30 minutes at a cost of £1.10 (a 10% uplift to receive a text!) and the council had not refunded the charges paid to park although that would be the obviously fair thing to do.

This time, once the case hit the tribunal stage and Mr Mustard argued that it was procedurally unfair (a general law requirement for enforcement authorities so to be)  the council refunded £3 (not the 20p you note) in order to see if they could hang on to the £60 PCN. That looks unlikely given that they have either mislead or lied to the tribunal and to the Appellant (the motorist making the Appeal). There are dire warnings on council paperwork that motorists risk fines of £5,000 if they tell porky pies; Barnet Council need to get their own house in order.

If you are in the same boat and going to the tribunal do ask for a refund of the parking fee that you paid.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Barnet Council have now been in touch with Mr Mustard, apologised for the inconvenience and cancelled the PCN. It was just an error, not an attempt to deceive.

Newham Council parking have their own idea of the law

Mr Mustard's client Jenny has had housing problems. Jenny is a lovely lady who is a carer for the daughter of another one of Mr Mustard's clients who has complex behavioural problems (the daughter, that is). Currently, with her own small child, she is in a B&B which really isn't ideal. She has problems in getting everyday things done, like washing their clothes. She has to put it all in the car and then go to her sister's and use her washing machine.

Her sister gives her a 6 hour permit which is just about enough to do some washing, drying and ironing and load it all in and out of the car. She arrived at 10am. This is what she then emailed to Mr Mustard after getting a PCN:

Enclosed are the parking ticket and the visitor parking ticket that was issued to my car that day. I didn't realise that I needed ink to send these documents, omg! (ink was needed so that the scanner would work, not a nice way for printer makers to programme their machines).

The day I got the ticket, it was raining. It was also on a one way road. I was visiting my sister's to do some washing. I left her house at 15:55 pm but could not lock the front door and no one was in. You had to twist and lock it. I also had two big bags of washing and I was jogging up the road as there is never a parking space and my car was 200 yards away.

When I got to the car, I saw the parking ticket on the windscreen and a motorbike speeding away.

Thanks

The PCN was issued at 16:09 so some 9 minutes after the visitor permit had expired.

Mr Mustard challenged the PCN using the 10 minute's grace rule (introduced by 'Uncle' Eric Pickles - he's a big fan of the Barnet Bloggers you know) and then he challenged the Notice to Owner using the same grounds and Jenny received the rejection which contains the following:

Just plain wrong, the law also applies to periods of free parking

Poppycock, balderdash, codswallop, says Mr Mustard. Let us look at the law.

not the snappiest title

Was Jenny parked in a designated parking place? Yes, a bay for residents.

Had she paid or was the parking free?  Possibly either. In Newham if you don't have a car you get so many visitor vouchers for free and if you have a registered car with the free permit then you pay for them (Newham are very reasonable with permits & vouchers). Either way she had been parked during a permitted parking period.

Had that period expired by a period not exceeding 10 minutes, No, only 9 (phew).

This new rule was intended for the very situation that Jenny found herself in. She intended to leave on or by 4pm but the blessed door was a problem and that caused her to run a few minutes late. That should not cost her £130 as the penalty is disproportionate to the contravention. Look also at the stress it causes to people. Parking departments cause huge anxiety all over London.

Newham are clearly desperate to rake in the filthy lucre as they have resorted to telling a blatant untruth in order to try and persuade Jenny to pay up. Fat chance of that happening when Mr Mustard is representing her.

Mr Mustard must go now, file the Appeal at the tribunal and send Newham a complaint. If this Appeal goes ahead he will be asking for costs as Newham have been wholly unreasonable.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard