Due adjustment: #10 Enfield Council

The parking manager at Enfield Council is always helpful & courteous to Mr Mustard but not, apparently, quite so helpful to the disabled who cannot write.

Mr Mustard is a bit confused by the response as the telephone number he has been furnished with appears to be a text phone and Mr Mustard wanted a number that people who cannot write (or text) can phone.

It is possible that the text phone also takes spoken calls? (Mr Mustard not knowing about them) perhaps you know of a disabled person who can't write and who has an Enfield PCN who could test it for Mr Mustard and report back.

It would be refreshing if lots of verbal representations are taken (Mr Mustard has deja vu and is going to be dreaming about such calls) but you must read carefully what is written to you. Mr Mustard regularly obtains an MOT for his car = he obtains one once per year.

Mr Mustard wonders how the disabled know about this number to phone given that it isn't printed on the PCN and he somehow doubts that the disabled person will be all over the website of Enfield Council.

Mr Mustard thinks the answer merits about 6 out of 10 given that the edict from London Councils is that the phone number should appear on PCNs. 

End.

Due adjustment: #8 Croydon Council

A single point out of 10 for Croydon Council because they used to offer assistance but currently don't. You can't catch covid over the telephone so why the policy changed Mr Mustard cannot say.

Croydon Council can't abdicate their legal responsibilities although they have. So much for public service. If they are continuing to issue PCNs by the shedload, as they doubtless are, they have to have all legal mechanisms in place to deal with them, including offering due adjustment to the disabled who cannot write.

Mr Mustard beat a Croydon PCN the other day so knew there was nothing on the PCN to help the disabled. He looked at the website for completeness.

The law is not what Croydon Council say it is. That may be the quickest way for the council but use the method which is quickest or most convenient for you; Mr Mustard prefers email over an online web form.

Croydon also force you through their options, these are the ones for pavement parking, code 62.

Some of these possible reasons are traps for the unwary. To avoid obstructing the road will most likely see your challenge rejected as it isn't an exemption. I was loading is a possibility if you couldn't park anywhere else in order to load/unload and the vehicle was not left unattended. Breaking down or having nowhere to park aren't valid exemptions either, unless a traffic warden or policeman instructed you to park like that. As for the signs, the ban on pavement parking doesn't need to be signed!

Mr Mustard's advice is to ignore all of the reasons, click continue and then you get the real challenge system.

You can get straight to that page using this link

Croydon are sloppy with the word 'appeal' which has a special meaning, an Appeal is to the independent adjudicator after the council has turned down your informal challenge and formal representations (which can be the same or sometimes there is only the latter, for postal PCNs).

End

Due adjustment: #7 City of London

The City of London get about 7 out of 10 as they aren't hiding from the public generally and give various methods for contacting them. They don't however specifically mention 'due adjustment' and talk about 'exceptional circumstances' which are not defined whereas being disabled and unable to write is crystal clear.

The City should not be trying to bump their responsibility to accept verbal representations onto another, very busy, body, Citizens Advice; is there even a branch in the square mile?

This is what is on the PCN, pretty good but could be improved by mentioning due adjustment and the option to phone and make representations.

The need isn't for an instant decision but for the representation to be recorded.

The website is also helpful, up to a point.

The minicom service is helpful for those with impaired hearing or who are fully deaf.

As ever, Mr Mustard spotted something else on the website to take issue with. Technically the right to make representations at the Charge Certificate stage has been lost (although it may be recovered at the next stage; witness statement or statutory demand) but there isn't a legal bar on the City of London considering representations out of time, the law says they 'may' disregard (i.e. ignore) them but the Secretary of State says they should be considered if there is a valid reason why they are late and strong grounds to dispute the PCN. The City are simply trying to put you off and push you to pay up when the Corporation doesn't even really need the money.

End.

Due adjustment: #6 Camden Council

 

Following the above response from September Mr Mustard was going to write nice things about Camden Council but he has had to change his mind, although he is still in a good mood today.

Although the request was answered outside of the FOI system he still communicates with parking via FOI and very cordially too. The FOI officer cannot be faulted for his speed and friendliness of response. No criticism is made of him.

The switchboard telephone number to call is 020 7974 4444 (option 5). If you know of someone with a PCN who cannot write due to their disability please have them test this system out. If that doesn't work Mr Mustard will find them an expert to help out.

Mr Mustard followed up to see if the telephone number was going to be printed on PCNs as otherwise how would a disabled person know it? There then followed a quick and amusing (except for the adverse effect) exchange of emails.

Thus Camden get about 5 out of 10 for due adjustment.

Mr Mustard thought he should also have a look at the website to check if the due adjustment phone number was there and it wasn't, so how anyone was going to find the number is a mystery.

There are other items on this page which Mr Mustard find worthy of comment.

The website says 'you cannot challenge by phone'. Yes you can, London Councils who set the rules under statutory authority say the disabled who cannot write must be able to make representations by telephone.

Do not use the chatbot. Mr Mustard doubts that it ever tells you that you have a good case.

Internet Explorer is still supported by Microsoft until June of this year so shouldn't be excluded yet.

You can only use the Microsoft operating system to look at cctv, a bit awkward if you only have Apple products.

There are circumstances in which you should be allowed to recover your car from the pound without paying. A single woman robbed of her handbag late of an evening (luckily she had the car key in her pocket but nothing else) should be allowed to recover her car (with a promise to pay later) so that she can get home safely. Mr Mustard is sure he has seen such a policy somewhere but can't put his hand on it right now. Somebody who reads this and knows will doubtless add the information in the comment box.

End.

Due adjustment - #1 Barking & Dagenham

Regular readers will recall that Mr Mustard recently set the scene for a series of blogs about enforcement authorities in London and the due adjustments they should make for a disabled person who cannot write - put simply, the local authority should accept representations on the telephone.

The first response in alphabetical order, from Barking and Dagenham, was very disappointing.

Mr Mustard really didn't understand that, a council is by very definition a public service and must therefore be 'customer facing' (recipients of PCNs don't really relish being called customers though).

The legislation for parking PCNs says this about the form of representations:

and the joint committee, said this in March 2013, so not new:

which proposal was duly accepted:

Therefore the council's reply is utter twaddle, misleading, unkind to the disabled and in breach of the law.

As it happens the Chief Executive of the council, back in October when Mr Mustard started his research, was Chris Naylor who used to be the second in command at Barnet Council and Mr Mustard had met him. Mr Mustard asked Chris for his help as he rather hoped that such behaviour would bother him.

It was only last week that Mr Mustard started thinking about writing this blog post and recalled he had not had a reply. By then it was public knowledge that Chris was leaving the council for a post in the private sector. However, on the council website he was still shown as the Chief Executive. A follow up email was replied to by an out-of-office email that he had left and the interim Chief Executive was Claire Symonds. When Chris was at Barnet so was Claire and Mr Mustard had met her. So Mr Mustard duly emailed Claire.

Mr Mustard didn't get what he asked for but did instead get a review of the Freedom of Information request, which didn't need reviewing, it accurately set out how they don't care for the disabled at Barking & Dagenham Council. Here is the review:

Mr Mustard didn't ask if there was direct dial access to the parking team, only if there was a telephone number for the council that a disabled person could ring in order to make representations. It is merely a case of typing what the person says and in this day and age the task could probably be completed by a speech-to-text system backed up by a person listening afterwards to the saved audio file in case of query. The system could prompt for information such as the PCN ref, car registration, name, address and phone number of the caller and then ask them why they want to challenge the PCN.

Mr Mustard went to the contact us page and it isn't explicit but he presumes the disabled are meant to phone 020 8215 3000

Mr Mustard did click through to the Parking page and then to the PCN page and then again to the Challenge a PCN page. There was a Help with your PCN page, it is no help to the disabled.

The telephone number is not printed on PCNs. It should be as otherwise how are the disabled, if they can't use the internet, going to find the number? this is setting them up to fail and gives them another hurdle to jump in a fixed time or they get timed out of the process and the penalty can then increase by 50%. Isn't the life of the disabled hard enough without Barking & Dagenham Council making it even harder?

What assistance is there for the disabled printed on a PCN? The FOI review said this:

Mr Mustard didn't have a copy of a PCN so he has sent to Barking & Dagenham council for a copy. Then he came across one from October, here it is

There is absolutely nothing on it to tell the disabled how to obtain help. Mr Mustard has been lied to, not for the first time.

It isn't the role of the Citizens Advice Bureau to make up for the failure of the council to do what it is legally required to do. That is an attempt by the council to avoid having to accept a telephonic representation, the hope that the CAB will write to or use the online form instead. The CAB have enough to do with sorting out complex problems, not undertaking routine challenges.

Mr Mustard took himself to the One Stop Shop page. It says it is for 'assisted self-service' which is not what the disabled need, they need a full service, the ability to explain to a person what the challenge is and have it written down for them.

Mr Mustard checked the council's webpage about libraries, there is no mention of help for the disabled.

To summarise the situation at Barking & Dagenham Council.

They are despicably obstructive to the disabled and failing in their legal duty.

It would be useful if you are the helper for a disabled person who cannot write to test out the system the council says is in place to assist them. Will it work? Mr Mustard doubts it. Please try it out and if the helper could let Mr Mustard know what happens he can then contact the Chief Executive again.

The end, for now.

Due adjustments - PCNs - the theory

 

PCNs - due adjustment

LGO report 17 019 196 by MisterMustard on Scribd

Mr Mustard found the above decision on the LGO website which he takes a look at from time to time. He has previously been critical of the LGO for not having teeth but they have bared them to Southwark and the decision is of application to every PCN issuing enforcement authority within England.

The entire report is well worth reading in full but if you are short of time Mr Mustard draws your attention to the critical elements on page 11

Mr Mustard considers that the PCN should tell you that if you cannot write in for any reason that you can telephone in order to make your challenge. In Barnet he suggests that until such time as Barnet catch up with this decision you should telephone 0208 359 7446 explain your disability and say that you want to make a representation by telephone in line with the LGO's decision. If you get a refusal that may well ultimately be enough to get an adjudicator at London Tribunals to cancel the PCN although given the difficulties with challenging you may not get that far as you are unable to write, without help, within the deadlines.

Mr Mustard has previously tried to use a council's failure to offer due adjustment as a point of Appeal to an adjudicator but has been rebuffed on the grounds that written representations and the Appeal were done on time (which was only because Mr Mustard did them and he cannot help every single person) which is a Catch 22 response. If the person with the disability fails to write on time they get timed out of the process. If they get someone else to write for them (assuming they can get help) they have followed the system so all is well. The question of prejudice is irrelevant. The council must offer due adjustment to every motorist as they do not know when they issue a PCN if the motorist suffers from a disability or not.

You should add the failure to offer due adjustment to every challenge that you make regardless of whether or not you have one. This way the council may act sooner.

The LGO's decision is very pleasing. The government is forcing more of the population to do everything using the Internet which contradicts the Equality Act legislation hat they themselves made law. Perhaps this decision will tip the playing field back to a level status?

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard