Barnet Council double lash up

 

Mr R was a bit surprised to receive the above PCN when he parked in a location he knew well, on a single yellow line but outside the restricted times, and thought he could sort it out himself given that it was an obvious error.

Mr R made his own informal challenge and was, to his even greater surprise, rejected. At that point he came to Mr Mustard. Here is the absolute load of tosh which was the rejection letter and the usual generous offer to accept £80 for a penalty that is not due (why would you pay that?):

 Here is the car in question and the bay sign.

You can just see a hint of a single yellow line in front of the car.

Next is an image from google street view which clearly shows the vehicle was to the left of the sign and the disabled bay is to the right. The photos taken by the CEO ('traffic warden'), whether by accident or design, didn't include any which showed the painted legend 'DISABLED' on the carriageway.

Here is an older google image which also makes the situation clear. These images can of course be looked at by back office staff of the council (or its contractor APCOA).

All of the parking restrictions in the borough of Barnet are recorded on a map based system which is freely available to the public here and this shows exactly where the disabled bay is located. A traffic warden in doubt could equally look at that and it ought to be on his hand held equipment based upon the co-ordinates of where he is standing at that time.

Note that the rejection letter states that the car was parked outside no. 10 and clearly the disabled bay is outside no. 12

The problem was quickly fixed by Mr Mustard logging the formal representations and sending two complaints to the parking manager who, to his credit, always responds pretty quickly and usually agrees with Mr Mustard. What other choice did he have here? The two complaints were about the actions of both the CEO and the back office and the PCN was cancelled a week later. For a nervous type this could all have been too much and Mr Mustard knows that completely wrong PCNs do get paid by people who can't afford to pay 100% if they are wrong, who think the council must be correct despite the evidence of their own eyes, or whose knees buckle at the slightest hint of trouble. Mr Mustard isn't one of those types.

The two big questions about this PCN are:

1. How the heck did the CEO get this wrong ? 

2. Does the back office reject all informal challenges without looking at the facts as they know many people will give up at that stage ?

Is there cynical behaviour inside the council PCN factories ? You decide.

The end. 

 

 

 

Discounts - not offered - a new trend

In 2024 Mr Mustard and other experts noted a number of rejections in which enforcement authorities in London stopped offering the discount when issuing official Notices of Rejection which open the door to the independent tribunal.

Motorists often complain that the penalty has doubled and he pedantically points out that is not tree, it simply hasn't halved, it was always £130, £110, £80 or whatever the case may be.

Let us start with a PCN placed on your vehicle.

You can describe the 50% discount as a sweetener, an incentive or a bribe as you like. If you are bang to rights then the discount is worth taking advantage of. It speeds up the process, saves administration costs and time and puts the PCN behind you. The statutory guidance of the Secretary of State requires if a PCN is placed on your car on the 1st of the month and your informal challenge, as it is known, reached the council by the 14th of the month (that is day 14 as the 1st is counted as day 1, a common error is to add 14 not 13) then if that challenge is rejected the 50% discount must be offered again for 14 days. The PCN will also state this.

What has usually happened, as it was easier, is that all informal challenges for at least the first 28 days (and longer if the Notice to Owner was not issued promptly), were met with a templated rejection that offered the discount again for 14 days from receipt of the letter (sometimes the date of the letter) in an attempt to 'get rid' of a PCN. It was a system that worked as most motorists don't have Mr Mustard's staying power.

When the Notice to Owner is issued discounts are officially no longer available. However, for those tougher motorists who make formal representations, which can be identical to the informal challenge, it doesn't matter if the council have said no once already, most councils still offered the discount again for another 14 days.

The reason is simple. Councils would rather have quick money and an easy life. If the motorist starts an Appeal to the independent adjudicator at London Tribunals, as Mr Mustard does for nearly every PCN he fights, the council in question will have to produce the evidence pack containing all of the documents from both sides about the PCN, the traffic order, photos of signs and a written summary of the case. This will take 2 or 3 hours so is expensive. In addition, there is a fee which they have to pay to fund the tribunal setup of c.£30 for each PCN appeal started whether or not it goes ahead and win or lose. Costs are very rare so can largely be ignored.

In 2024 Mr Mustard, and other experts who swap notes and advice, noticed a trend at the formal representations stage (after the Notice to Owner) that the sum demanded in the Notice of Rejection was the 100% figure. They know that many motorists are a bit afraid of the tribunal although they don't need to be, it is an informal forum and therefore rather than doing something new the tendency in the past was to pay up the 50%. Now that some councils are asking for 100% and going to the tribunal doesn't cost the motorist anything except a little time (and from next month your hearing can be on Microsoft Teams so you don't need to go to Chancery Lane) it appears to the experts that there is no incentive to meekly pay up like a mug provided you have at least a bit of an argument (not a load of silly baloney). It will be interesting to see if more Appeals are made in 2025.

This policy change will make no difference to Mr Mustard. He tries to educate his motorists from the off that he tries to find arguments that could work at the tribunal (he is usually only 91% accurate and at least one other expert is more successful) and sets out his stall from the beginning to fight to the end. Sometimes he realises an existing argument will no longer work but picks up a new one along the way so his trip along the high wire can be a bit exciting.

The other point in favour of motorists is that if councils can't keep up with surges in Appeals they sometimes just let them go and cancel the PCN to save time. This is known as the DNC process (Do not contest). Mr Mustard had 54 DNC cases in 2024 (very few from Barnet) across his 300+ cases.

Looking now at moving traffic PCNs for yellow box junctions, banned turns etc there is only one challenge to the council before the tribunal. Again most councils used to always offer the discount again when rejected you but the law does not require them to offer it at all. Moving traffic legislation is quite blunt. If you pay within 14 days of the date on the PCN you can definitely have the discount, otherwise not. If you challenge on day 10 and get rejected on day 20 a council can insist on 100% being paid (or watch you go to Appeal). Many motorists think of these PCNs the same as parking ones as years ago there were mostly parking PCN and not much else but given the wide implementation of 'school streets' and other 'low traffic neighbourhoods' the numbers of these PCNs has mushroomed.

If we finally consider London bus lane PCNs you get sent a PCN and then if still unpaid an Enforcement Notice. Again if you don't pay the PCN within 14 days the discount could be gone. The Enforcement Notice, just like the Notice to Owner in parking, does not include a discount offer. The informal rejection and the Notice of Rejection may include a discount offer but they don't have to (unless the council documents says otherwise in which case out of fairness the offer must be honoured).

Now, finally, to the trend which has been witnessed.

Mr Mustard had a look through recent Notices of Rejection and found that the following councils did not offer the discount as an incentive to pay up rather than start a tribunal Appeal. Mr Mustard started Appeals for them all as he is confident in his arguments.

Enfield

Islington

Camden

Redbridge

Haringey

Brent

Mr Mustard will add other councils to this list as he notices them. It isn't necessarily the case that these councils won't sometimes offer a discount, it may depend how strong they think the case is, a sort of cost benefit analsysis. What Mr Mustard hasn't done is ask any questions about council policy. He will do so when he finds some time.

Mr Mustard's advice is simple. Do all your work at the start and decide if you want to fight or fold. If you want to fight, put all of your energy into it, no half measures.

The end

Greenwich 1 - Lambeth 0

Here is an image of a white car being driven the wrong side of a keep left bollard in Vanbrugh hill, Greenwich. A naughty and stupid piece of driving, you'll see the cctv a bit further on. Who is driving the car? someone with the permission of the London Borough of Lambeth, oh dear, do as I say not as I do.

Mr Mustard learnt about this case because the PCN ended up at the independent tribunal and here is the decision of the adjudicator.

This presented Mr Mustard with the long awaited opportunity to show you what a tribunal evidence pack looks like. It is produced by the 'prosecuting' borough, in this case Greenwich and includes Lambeth's evidence

Here is the video, a hideously bad, arrogant and dangerous move.

The end

PCN - 50% 14 days woes - help needed

Mr Mustard has a friend with a PCN whose 50% payment, sent by post in the first week after receiving a PCN, was processed after 2 months.

He is now looking for any other examples of this to see if it was an isolated instance or an epidemic. If you have one, whether sorted or not, please email the details to mrmustard@zoho.com

Not many of us use cheques nowadays and to avoid being counted out of time it is best if you can to pay on-line using a credit or debit card as there is no doubt about the payment date.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

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Yours frugally

Mr Mustard