Newham Council are Cheats - #49

 

In order to issue a PCN a Civil Enforcement Officer (CEO or traffic warden in old money) must have a belief that a contravention has occurred. If bay lines are worn below the point of substantial compliance then it is not possible to have that belief. Traffic wardens are meant to look at the lines and report them if they are unclear, they often don't, they just issue a PCN.

It is a fundamental principle of English law that you are innocent until proven guilty. Issuing a PCN reverses that situation as if you are innocent, as Mr James was, but you don't defend yourself by fighting the PCN, you become guilty by default. Administrative convenience has been allowed to trample over your human rights. 

Many visitors to Newham will know Broadway as it is bang in the middle of Stratford. Here is the location in question, as at September 25 a few months after the date of the alleged contravention.

Looking back on google street view there doesn't seem to be time when the lines were pristine.

There is a second problem for the council in that double yellow lines are usually held by adjudicators to apply from the centre of the carriageway across the pavement up to the building line so the council have created an inbuilt ambiguity by the double yellow lines which should not be alongside a pavement bay. 

The traffic warden cheated by issuing the PCN in the first place and all other staff followed him/her like unthinking sheep, we issued a PCN so it must be correct.

The end. 

Faded white lines and spot the white van

One of the contract terms is that the NSL traffic wardens are meant to check that lines and signs are in accordance with regulations before they issue a parking ticket (stop laughing at the back, and the front and the sides - yes, of course they don't - it is just puff put into the contract to make people think the council give a damn).

Mr Mustard was wandering down the High Rd in N Finchley the other day, on his way to have a lovely cup of tea at Cafe Buzz, when he took a photograph of this bay.

The yellow lines are lovely but the white ones are hard to see

The lines are actually clearer in the photograph than they are to the naked eye. Let us hope that NSL have noticed these lines are poor and need to be painted again. Why should NSL have noticed these lines in particular? well, simply because they are outside of the office where the traffic wardens are based. That is an NSL scooter parked at the far end which is fine as two wheelers can park for free in any resident or pay-by-phone bay.

Mr Mustard drank his tea and decided to go to his office and do some work as it was 9.15 and he walked back up from Cafe Buzz up towards Solar House where he had parked in side turning in a 2-3pm bay. Just as he was strolling along a white van pulled up and what with this office block advertising that it has 15,000 sq ft of space to rent, and with the demise of Furnitureland there are precious few vehicles ever parked this far out of town. 

sorry about the finger intrusion.

Mr Mustard noted that an NSL employee got out of the little white van and strolled into Solar House. Nowadays one can't tell if a vehicle has paid for parking or not because the little ticket no longer has to be stuck in the windscreen but Mr Mustard would suspect that NSL don't pay for parking even if they should as they doubtless have a database of registration numbers in their handheld equipment that they know better than to give a ticket to and they can cancel it themselves if they do make a mistake.

Time for a little competition thought Mr Mustard. Look out for this little white van, a Vauxhall Connect CDTI, with the registration number of 

HN59TPO

Please look out for it around the borough and send me photographs of the driver leaving it on double yellows whilst he does his shopping, gets a takeaway, or pops into the bookies, parks dangerously at a junction, or anywhere else that is dodgy such as with 2 wheels on the pavement.

The best photograph will win the owner a Mr Mustard T-shirt or mug (these are very limited items with only a score of each in existence).

Have fun.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard