Barnet Council - Residents' permits - again

Regular readers will know that Mr Mustard tweeted that he was the proud recipient on 8 December 2016 of a PCN for failing to display his resident's permit.

They are of course electronic so he couldn't display one, even if he had one, which he didn't! The reason he didn't have one was simple, for the last 20 years he has relied on the council sending a reminder to him and he did not receive one for the 2 November 2016 renewal date. He has now purchased a new permit and is very grateful for the free month's parking.

Needless to say Mr Mustard wrote to parking management:

'Please tell me the date and time that the permit reminder email was sent to me and whether it was returned undelivered'

Quite quickly he was sent copies of two reminder letters (not emails) sent the month before renewal was due that Mr Mustard had not seen hide nor hair of. Given that he receives about a foot thick pile of mail every month Mr Mustard is necessarily quite efficient when it comes to letters. No email reminder was sent which is odd as every permit requires the provision of an email address.

Mr Mustard wrote back and enquired as to whether proof of printing or posting could be supplied.

The answer was clearly no as at that point his PCN was cancelled for some undisclosed technical error at the point of issue (the vague face saving defence which he so often sees).

Perhaps it helped that Mr Mustard provided the following email from a different member of the parking management team from last year

If you have had a PCN for an expired permit and you also didn't receive posted permit reminders (or emails) then perhaps you need to email mrmustard@zoho.com who will sort the resultant PCN out for you. Do not just cough up for the PCN, Mr Mustard can beat this sort of PCN at least 90% of the time.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

To turn a 'No' into a 'Yes' simply persist

Mr Mustard decides at the beginning if he is going to fight a PCN to the end. If he isn't, the client pays the 50% of the PCN's full value. If he decides to fight he fights to the end, through 3 challenges if necessary, and ignores any re-offers of a 50% discount.

This is the informal challenge (made in response to a PCN placed on a vehicle) recently.

The response was as follows

so that's a clear 'no', the PCN is still valid. There are no signs telling you about leaving your car if you have insufficient change (Mr Mustard recommends that you keep a bag of change in your car for this very purpose though as it isn't a valid defence to a PCN for non-payment) nor is there a council parking meter anywhere in the borough which takes cash, that is an NSL employee waxing lyrical and/or writing trite nonsense.

Mr Mustard isn't one to give in so he waited until his client had the Notice to Owner and then sent in the following representations which, you will notice, are identical to the earlier ones. You need to tell a consistent story and it doesn't matter that the council have already rejection your challenge, they have to consider it afresh.

Suddenly the council changed its tune.

So an unacceptable challenge is suddenly acceptable due to technical error (a meaningless phrase). What if Mr Green had paid when first rejected, he would have paid in error. The council need to think more carefully about the initial challenge. Whichever stage he is rejected at Mr Mustard will take the council to London Tribunals (ex PATAS) which costs them £33 win or lose. They need to learn to save time and money by noticing their technical errors at an early stage.

The council are correct that Mr Musatrd should have said code 5. That requires a 5 minutes observation, code 11 only requires 3 except that thanks to Eric Pickles MP you have to be 10 minutes past the paid for time before you can be given a PCN.

Please don't be easily put off. Fight to the end.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Blue badge clock up

It is in the nature of the elderly and/or disabled to forget, sometimes, to put their blue badge clock out when they park on single or double yellow lines (which they are allowed to do for up to 3 hours as long as there aren't any restrictions on loading, which are usually indicated by kerb flashes and a sign).

The mother of a friend put her badge out, but forgot the clock, when she recently parked in High Barnet at 10:38 in the morning. She got a parking ticket.

Mr Mustard appealed on the grounds that although the clock was not on display a contravention could not have taken place as the yellow line is only operative from 08:00 so parking tickets for this offence should not be issued before 11:00

The council didn't accept that argument but did cancel the ticket because of an unspecified "technical error". It would have been nice to know what it was but the main thing is that the parking ticket was cancelled.

Mr Mustard is inclined to think that the argument is a good one. It has been used to good effect in PATAS case 2080110323. Mr Mustard recommends that if you find yourself in similar circumstances that you trot out the same argument.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard