TfL bully boys ?

 

This PCN is the first that Mr Mustard has seen with this new layout. If TfL find it improves the rate of payment you can be sure that other enforcement authorities in London will follow suit. To Mr Mustard's mind the red section is all wrong.

Certain information on a PCN is statutory and anything else can be added by TfL. The enforcement process items it must contain are the full price of the penalty and the 50% discounted price. It must also tell you that if you do not pay or make representations within 28 days of service (=receipt) that TfL may increase the balance by 50% and send you a charge certificate to that effect.

Given the parlous state of the payment system the PCN may not arrive very quickly and it could easily be 4,5 or 6 days before you receive it especially as first class post is no longer mandatory for this type of PCN (which is a backward step given the state of the Royal Mail). Therefore, TfL should not put a fixed date (2 October) within the PCN which could make you think you are out of time when you are still within it. Mr Mustard posted a Power of Attorney to his Solicitor recently that took 8 days to reach Godalming, by first class post. He could have cycled there and back in 2. Keep the envelope in which your PCN was sent if you want to ask Mr Mustard about the PCN.

What bothers Mr Mustard even more are the next two red sections for Debt Registration and Enforcement Agent (bailiff). No-one sensible ignores a PCN but the assumption should be that the recipient will choose to deal with it. This just looks like bullying to Mr Mustard. He needs to obtain the other 3 pages of the PCN and the 2 pages of notes before he can decide how unfair the whole thing is but his first reaction is that this is bang out of order.

If you disagree with the PCN make sure you fight it and do it now, don't be a last minute merchant.

More soon.

Just been sent the rest, look at this page. 

From the very start you are being threatened, this is completely unacceptable, you are allowed 28 days in which to act and take advice. Mr Mustard will be fighting this PCN (it has already been at the county court stage once and TfL have cheated so this should end up going away and nowhere near a bailiff) which the recipient of is happy about and will take his chances (Mr Mustard wins 90% of the time) which might cost him an extra £90 but he knows and accepts the low risk.

Yet more soon. 

Added 9 September: Enforcement authorities, such as TfL, are given powers that are discretionary. They have the power to progress your PCN through various stages but the legislation does not say they have to use those powers, each PCn should be considered on an individual basis. To so otherwise and automate progression is an abuse of power and fetters their discretion but all systems are automated to the maximum.

Many enforcement authorities take stock just before the Order for Recovery stage as they have to pay an £11 fee to the Court to proceed. If the motorist then signs a statutory declaration that, for example, the original postal PCN was not received, as in this case, TfL suffer a loss of £11 as the charge reverts to the 100% PCN value. 

If the proposed bailiff screens the PCNs proposed for registration at the TEC and decides they are unlikely to succeed then the authority may not bother to invest the £11 and the PCN will stay stuck where it is. Mr Mustard watches PCNs for a long time, as they sometimes come back to life, including one for Kensington & Chelsea on which the stage hasn't changed since he checked it on 31 December 2024, probably due to their cyber attack.

Who did you say you were again?

Mr Mustard has received unprintable comments with this weekly message and he does tend to agree that it is possibly the most amazing weekly message that he has even seen.

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amazingly awful, that is. The blog isn't read so much on a weekend so let Mr Mustard spare his readers and get this message out of the way.

From: First Team

Sent: 15 June 2012 10:57

To: AllStaff

Subject: Weekly message

Nick has asked me to do the weekly message as this will be my last week in Barnet for the next year or so.

One of the best things about being a Director of Children's Services is hearing the stories of families who've turned their lives around and created a real future and a proper childhood for their kids.

I've seen kids go back to school, adults off drugs and into work, and parents looking after their children rather than the state. All of this in the midst of an Armageddon of budget cuts.

I now have a wealth of these success stories that others want to hear about and I've been given an opportunity to do so through a secondment to the Troubled Families Unit of the DCLG.

Even though the impetus for the national support for this work is born out of the economic crisis, the public sector has always sought the life outcomes we are now delivering here in Barnet for our most chaotic families.

I've said it before and I really don't care about repeating it, I think our staff are brilliant and I have every expectation you will continue to deliver the outcomes Barnet families need regardless of structures, governance and even strategy.

The public sector has never faced a challenge as big as the one we are in now. The dinosaurs had it easy with that meteorite 65 million years ago. And if I stick with this analogy for a while, those councils with a tendency for inertia will be the fossils referred to in the annals of the Municipal Journal of the next decade.

This makes life more than a bit difficult for everyone (sic) of us and I have been frankly amazed at how staff have accepted this challenge and got on with it.

Barnet Council and its partners have been blessed with a hugely talented and committed workforce and a supportive leadership from our Councillors. I have worked in many LAs so I speak with some authority here and I know Nick and my fellow directors share this view.

Better for less, has not just been another political sound bite here in Barnet, it's what's happening. We have seen huge changes already in the last two years and the usage and quality of our services have continued to improve even in these times.

The council has now entered a further significant period of evolution which other councils are watching carefully.

I will be closely following developments over the next year and of course wish you continued success. And if I can apologise in advance, I will be voraciously plagiarising all your work for the benefit of other councils.

Nick will be back next week, so enough from me. I will begin the secondment with the DCLG on the 25th of this month. Thank you for all that you do, have done and will continue to do for those most vulnerable and disadvantaged.

Robert

"Who is this Robert fellow"? is the polite version of one of the questions that was asked of Mr Mustard. Of course, as Mr Mustard knows more about the workings of the council than many on the inside, he can tell them that it is Robert McCulloch-Graham who is off on secondment for a year, taking his delusions of grandeur with him.

So, is Barnet a better place thanks to 3 years of paying Robert £165,504 p.a.? (2011/12 rate)

How was the final performance report for his department? It should be good after 3 years in charge? Here it is. The red ink is the council's and not Mr Mustard's this time.

Barnet Council Children's Service q3 2011/12 Performance

A deeply unimpressive state in which to leave a department after 3 years of management. Only 60 managers submitted a monthly absence return (the basics not being done) a HR rating of negative 4.5 suggesting the staff are not being properly managed and 23 cases (3%) of Employee Relations Cases.

Let us hope things improve now.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard