Newham Council - not staffed by Knights of the Road

This story concerns a road near the Tate and Lyle factory, not all that far from the Thames Barrier.  It is a rather industrial area sandwiched between the river and docks.

It could do with a weekly wash.

The sign that was there in 2020 was nowhere to be seen two years later. Local workers will naturally and legally take advantage of free parking. It seems that signs at this location disappear or are vandalised quite often. The council's solution is to put new signs up, send a traffic warden or two down there straightaway, issue PCNs and then tow en masse. Naughty, as they should wait a day before enforcing, but an adjudicator had their measure.

This is Mr Goring's only entry in the PCN Appeal register so we can be fairly sure he is a victim not a sign stealer.

Mr Mustard doesn't know why he read this particular decision on 22 August but he did and it piqued his interest so he sent Newham Council some questions.

Very sensibly, the response was provided by way of a table which Mr Mustard has rearranged into PCN time order.

Look at that efficiency, 6 PCNs issued in 12 minutes. One traffic warden could do that but more likely there were 2 or 3. Removals also at pace. There must have been two lorries as there were removals 4 and 5 minutes apart.

The second PCN is that of Mr Goring. Two other people made representations but then didn't fight the rejection at the tribunal. If they had, they might have got their money back. 

Four motorists didn't even bother to try and challenge their PCNs. If all seven had gone to the tribunal three or four at least would have won. There was no risk of having to pay further monies. If you are towed you pay the 50% in order to release your vehicle, which freezes the PCN and you also pay £200 for the tow. If ever you are towed you must make representations as they are a free throw of the dice (unless you are monumentally stupid or selfish and parked on a zebra crossing).

Assuming everyone recovered their vehicles on the same day, so didn't pay £40 for overnight storage, Newham Council raked in £265 * 6 = £1,590

This is what parking has become. An immoral machine for sucking money out of the wallets and purses of innocent people. We need an independent external body to police the behaviour of councils and contractors and to force them to behave in a proper manner.

This ridiculous logo was on the bottom of the council's letter:

Best start building Newham Council as you are patently and obviously unfair.

The end.

Will Newham Council relent on this PCN?

Here is the road in which the offending car was parked, probably on a double yellow (Mr Mustard didn't act as representative so doesn't have any photos), but don't judge the driver on that sentence alone.

This road is a parking design nightmare with every man (or woman) for themself and no chance of anyone having a nice green frontage as if you do that there is simply nowhere you can park.

Here is the tribunal adjudication decision, the contravention did occur so the PCN had to be upheld. Towing was a step too far though. The adjudicator did the best he could within the law.

What a day Mr Syed Naqvi had, a 12 hour shift on Xmas Day and a return journey to Hastings. The parking department should be awarding him the freedom of the borough, not taking his car away.

Newham's bank holiday policy is too harsh.

Mr Mustard wondered what the parking department would do in response to the nudge from the Adjudicator, would they decide to keep the money that had to be paid before the car would be released from the pound or would they decide to refund it? Mr Mustard decided on a bit of nudging himself, he emailed the Mayor of Newham. If he gets a reply he will let you know.

If you happen to know Mr Syed Naqvi of Croombs Road in Newham do please thank him for his dedication.

End