Secret free parking - so secret the traffic warden doesn't know.

Hadley Green, EN5

One of the supposed benefits of PayByPhone is that if you can see the sign from the comfort of your car then you don't need to leave it. Regular users of the system who stop at the same location quite often only need to check that the sign looks like the one that was there last time they parked and then make their payment.

Should there be a 2 hour free period, it should be on the face of this sign which is on Hadley Green in Chipping Barnet, just past the pond on the right as you head north.

There is a free 2 hour parking period at this location (and unlimited free parking after 2.30pm in the week until 8 the next morning but not on a Saturday) but you would only know if you got out of your car and walked around the other side of the post and found this second sign, which is set rather too high for easy reading:

So where shall we start?

The council have failed to properly sign the rules so people have paid and been given a PCN in error. They should all be automatically refunded.

Many people will have paid for parking that should have been free. You can ask for a refund of all up to 2 hour payments as they have been paid under mistake, going back to when the free 2 hour period started in December 2013.

A traffic warden issued a PCN there on 11 August 14 to a lady who knew the rules and stayed for less than 2 hours. Her initial representations have been rejected. Mr Mustard is about to take over and then they will be accepted, he thinks and if they aren't the council will waste a £40 fee going to PATAS where they will lose.

Don't the Notice Processing Officers who rejected the representations know there is 2 hours free at this location either?

If traffic wardens had regular beats they would get to know the area and the rules better. Mind you it would help if the signs which they have to enforce were correct.

Anyone would think that the council didn't want you to take advantage of the free parking.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Update 15:20

Mr Mustard now has a copy of the thoroughly amateur and non-compliant sign that the council did put up last year and which has gone west.

Free parking in Chipping (High) Barnet

Lights to follow shortly

At last some good news on the parking front in Chipping Barnet. Some free parking bays, which have been carefully placed in the areas which are currently hardly used so the council isn't actually giving anything away and this won't hurt their projected income much at all.

The letter was 3 pages long so Mr Mustard took the scissors to it (old style cut and paste) and brings you the relevant parts:

click to enlarge

Note the crafty clawing back of funds by making over 2 hours on Hadley Green £4.55 whereas before it might have been £2.60 (for up to 3 hours). If you are staying longer Mr Mustard recommends parking on the edge of the CPZ and walking in (not the St Albans Rd please as that is becoming dangerous). Better maps are coming of the CPZ areas, Mr Mustard will be road testing them during the development stage and will report back at the time.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard