A patient driver

The above location photo, of Acre Lane approaching Brixton Road doesn't show it very clearly but there is a section of single yellow, before some doubles reds, and on a Sunday motorists can park on the single yellow.

This led to a problem.

The driver, Mr P, found himself in what he thought was a traffic queue but he was in fact behind a parked car. Mr P wrote his own thoughtful representations.

 

 

One point that was missed was that signage was inadequate, it being turned away from passing drivers.

You would expect a reasonable length of reply given the serious points that had been made, which had the ring of truth to them. No such luck, Lambeth wrote very little:

Although the option to start an Appeal at London Tribunals is not mentioned in this formal Notice of Rejection, as the law provides, a Notice of Appeal form was provided.

Mr Mustard took over at this point and drafted the Grounds of Appeal. They were one of his better efforts, short and bang on target. He left to one side the failure to properly respond to what the representations said as that was a harder argument to get across the line and the two he did put forward were likely to bear fruit.

Mr Mustard didn't have to wait long, 11 days later Lambeth threw in the towel and cancelled the PCN.

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

Salters Hill - Crystal Palace - again

Mr Mustard blogged about this location earlier in the year, here.

What do you do if there isn't a car coming towards you?

Yes, you drive past the give way to oncoming vehicles sign.

What do Lambeth Council do if you do that and then a vehicle appears after you have passed the sign?

Yes, they send you a PCN in the post.

What can you do to avoid a vicious and stupid Lambeth PCN?

The only thing that Mr Mustard can see is to sit there forever.

That will make you popular.

Fortunately, an adjudicator has got the measure of Lambeth.

If they carry on as they are they will get hit for costs for wholly unreasonable or vexatious behaviour.

Here is the adjudicator's decision. Case no. 2200135565

Such desperation to rake in £130 from an innocent driver.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Bailiffs don't like it up em

Not the car in question

Mr Mustard has often wondered if bailiff's vans get ticketed as he suspects that bailiffs think they are above parking law when it comes to themselves. Well in Lambeth they aren't above the law (Mr Mustard doesn't know if they were enforcing a Lambeth warrant or not). What is so helpful is to find a jobsworth CEO (traffic warden) who needs to meet his non-existent quota of PCN who issues a ticket despite whatever the bailiff might say. The traffic warden is correct, a bailiff going around enforcing a penalty for not complying with traffic/parking regulations should him/herself comply with them all.

Lambeth Parking back office held firm and rejected the representations which were made and the PCN ended up at London Tribunals (formerly PATAS) and below is the result:

So there we have it, the bailiff's van was not, in fact, on the footway. What a pity that the traffic warden did not take a better photograph as the result could have been different.

The part of the story above which is wrong is that the bailiff used his van to block the garage of the debtor, a bailiff cannot deprive you of your right to go about your daily business. There aren't many garages in Virgil St, it may have been one of these which have dropped kerbs. 

If only the PCN had been issued for being adjacent to a dropped kerb, the outcome would again probably have been different.

If a bailiff blocks you in, phone the police and report the obstruction or phone the council to come out and issue a PCN.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Where's the fire? (not in Lambeth I hope)

Mr Mustard keeps half an eye on the public Register of the Environment & Traffic adjudicators who ultimately decide the fate of PCN. One case yesterday jumped off the page at him as the Appellant was the London Fire Brigade. Here is part of what the adjudicator had to say:

This was double pinnacle of incompetence by Lambeth Council whose traffic warden gave a PCN to a fire officer's car and then the back office were blinded by the assumption that the motorist must be in the wrong and they wasted the time of a LFB employee (we are paying from our taxes) going up to Chancery Lane to present his case.

Mr Mustard imagines the scene on the end of the 999 line one day

Hello 999, it is Lambeth Council here. It's the middle of the night and the parking office is on fire. There isn't anyone in there but it will cost us millions if you don't come and extinguish the fire pretty quickly. 

What's that, what sort of parking restrictions are there at the scene? Well double yellow lines but you can park on those as it is an emergency. What, you don't want to as last time you parked on a mere single yellow we gave you a ticket and wouldn't cancel it. We promise we won't be so stupid again. Now, are you on your way, pretty please?

Mr Mustard has now woken up. Of course the LFB would visit the scene of all fires.

Looking back through the register Mr Mustard can see that LFB have very careful procedures to ensure that the exemtpion with which they are provided is not mis-used and that the following boroughs have put them through needless Appeals since 2010:

Barking & Dagenham, Waltham Forest, Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Harrow, Bexley and

Transport for London &

the City of London

Could all those authorities please start to employ people with more common sense.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Good news story - not in Barnet though

http://westnorwood.wordpress.com/

This is the kind of story Mr Mustard would like to read in Barnet.  Lambeth Council evidently listen harder to their traders than Barnet do. Hence that could be why West Norwood, which Mr Mustard knows well, is now doing reasonably well despite it not being a main town centre.

From the Standard

 

Shopkeepers were celebrating today after Lambeth council eased parking restrictions around their businesses which they claimed hit trade.

West Norwood High Street shoppers can now park free for an hour rather than just 30 minutes. Antonia Beamish, 41, owner of Beamish & McGlue grocery shop and café, said takings fell 30 per cent under the half-hour rule. “When we first opened in 2005, you were free to park all around this area,” she said. (Dean Cohen take note, this is what Barnet's traders have been saying, a 30% to 40% drop in trade due to removal of meters)

“About two years later, the council made the changes and it made a massive difference. We have been suffocated by these measures.” However, Miss Beamish insisted: “For a thriving high street, we need a two-hour free parking minimum and no restrictions on Saturdays.”

The changes came after Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said he wanted to end the “overzealous culture of parking enforcement” because the “rigid state orthodoxy of persecuting motorists” damages small businesses across the UK.

Parking meter charges of up to £3 an hour remain an issue in West Norwood, said Stav Tsoukkas, 32, who owns the Electric Café: “The tariffs are very high and although there are free bays, they get taken up very quickly.”

Imogen Walker, Lambeth council cabinet member for environment, said: “We have extended the time people can stop for free in parking bays along the High Street. Further free parking in side-street bays was extended to 60 minutes in December, which has made it easier for people who want to stop for a meal. (only if they bolt their food)

“We have been putting a stronger focus on making sure our civil enforcement officers are helpful to motorists, for example by advising them on where they can and can’t park.” (Helpful traffic wardens - gosh)

There is still scope for improvement in Lambeth. In Norwood Rd (that is the name of the road on which Beamish & McGlue are situated) from 1 April 12 to 28 February 13 there were 267 parking tickets issued by a traffic warden on foot and 2801 by stealthy cctv. That will be about £200,000 that the council have raked in from penalty charges.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard