Why we need a parking Ombudsman - #1

 

Legislation is written on the basis that a body given a power will use it in a reasonable manner. The faceless bureaucrats and contractors who wield the power have stopped caring what the public thinks and will dish out a PCN for any trivial contravention.

This car with the roof bars is in contravention if he stopped because of a stationary vehicle. You, the reader, already think that sending a PCN through the post to the keeper of this car is rather excessive as they could have stopped further forward which is what leads to the escape from the PCN, they stopped before the stationary vehicle and good reasons amusingly accepted by the older adjudicators as good reasons to stop and thus cancel the PCN were to 'light your pipe', 'read a newspaper' or 'admire the view'.

Mr Mustard has made the representation that the driver chose to stop where they did and could have exited had they chosen to and that in any event the alleged contravention is 'de minimis non curate lex' i.e. too trivial a matter for the law to concern itself with. Time will tell if this ends up at the tribunal or not.

This sort of PCN, trying to pilfer £160 out of the pocket of the motorist, shouldn't see the light of day and many lease companies would just pay it and thus remove the possibility of challenge from the keeper. That is why we need an Ombudsman to use the powers they could be granted to stop this sort of thing before it starts, to remove the worst excesses of council behaviour as the council itself won't do so, it is too profitable.

The end.

Brent Council - lawbreakers

 

Mr Mustard apologises for the recent dearth of blogs but he is busy earning a crust and is therefore rejecting the vast majority of requests for help with a PCN and not writing much on the blog. A few years ago the backlash against big brother cctv enforcement was felt by the government and they curtailed the widespread use of cctv to punish every perceived contravention. The law is now as set out above in the Statutory Guidance of the Secretary of State.

Last month a motorist came to Mr Mustard with a PCN and given the circumstances he decided to fight it. The driver had parked up for a few minutes in the taxi rank and there was no excuse, taxi ranks are for black cabs and Mr Mustard is in favour of them so please get off their ranks. However, he is even less fond of money-grubbing councils so the motorist got some help to fight the PCN and guidance about their future parking.

Here is a section of their PCN:

The camera isn't obviously sited, it is the other side of the road behind a tree, so much for the idea that cctv surveillance is to encourage compliance, this one is to maximise income.

Brent Council are still thinking about the challenge that was made a month ago, and their 56 days in which to respond are rapidly ebbing away but here it is, short, sweet and utterly devastating for the council:

The council is not empowered to issue PCNs in a taxi stand using cctv, a CEO in person must be at the location. The PCN has been issued unlawfully, please cancel it

Obviously this couldn't be a one off error, someone has authorised the installation of a camera for the purpose of issuing PCNs in what is, in fact, an illegal decision. Mr Mustard thought he had better find out how profitable the camera was so he asked some simple questions by FOI which worked well and here are the responses:

Gosh, Mr Mustard was quickly on to this, it only started on 6 March 26.

Mr Mustard has today emailed the Monitoring Officer for Brent Council whose statutory duties include ensuring that the council follows the law. Let's see how long it is before he receives a response.

Mr Mustard thinks that it would be better that instead of asking a council to police itself, when it is hungry for revenue, that an external independent Ombudsman would be more effective at controlling the rapacious instincts of councils (and private parking companies) when it comes to the issue of PCNs which are a failed system in terms of controlling parking & driving but a massive success in terms of profit making for councils to shore up their pressed finances. Over 9m council & TFL PCNs are issued in London each year, they just aren't working to prevent contraventions.

To be continued.