Parking permits - forced channel shift

Forced channel shift is a terrible way to treat the public. The Government are now trying it but that doesn't make it right. In essence, what the council will do is to force everyone to apply for their parking permit on-line, whether or not you own a computer, not because it is the best method (although Mr Mustard uses it a lot and younger folk than him - see grey hairs in previous blog post - will be perfectly happy with it) but because it is the cheapest method for the council to process. We are letting the cost tail wag the service dog and it is high time we brought councils to heel.

What councils forget is that they are there to serve the public, who provide the funds, and so if the public prefer a more user friendly method that costs more, they should be allowed to use it. There are, of course, equalities issues with making older people and disabled drivers use a computer and a scanner (to upload a copy of, say, a car log book) or they have to lose some of their independence and get someone with the necessary computer skills to carry out the task for them.

Mr Mustard predicts that sometime in the future a charity will spring up which opens a shop, with plenty of free parking for blue badge holders, and provides a place where old folk can go and get this sort of thing done for them, computer lessons if they want and have a hot drink and a chat. This would help to get them out of the house and combat loneliness. The council might even be persuaded to make a grant to assist the charity as applications all made by the same person would go through more smoothly because they would know what is required.

Amendment  - 15 June
Don't ask Mr Mustard for winning lottery numbers as he will give you last week's ones. Age UK already do as much computer help as you could need. See here

Mr Mustard felt that with Capita taking over the issue of parking permits in their Coventry office, and coincidentally there being a backlog of applications, he would remind one of the parking managers of his opposition to forced channel shift and this was the response he received. Mr Mustard had become involved because a lady in her late 70's had trouble with obtaining a permit for a new car and didn't understand the PIN code system she was being forced to use.

Dear Mr Mustard

There is no forced channel shift. Residents are able to renew, purchase or transfer permits via post.

Mr Mustard is somewhat sceptical. He went on-line to see if he could download a form in order to apply manually. Every menu he clicked he ended up on the page that forces you to renew on-line, this one:

Mr Mustard tried again. He searched for "parking permit" and got this page

Great thought Mr Mustard, he had beaten the system. He clicked on "the attached form" and got this page:

Downloads do not accidentally fall off the council website, someone in power has taken an executive decision, a bad one in Mr Mustard's opinion. Despite what one of the parking managers says, forced channel shift is being well and truly foisted upon us. The manager reads this blog and so will doubtless now show Mr Mustard where the forms are to be found (in the council's libraries?) or it will quietly reappear for downloading.

Have you had a permit renewal since 1 May? Do let Mr Mustard know how it was for you?

Is your permit due, or even overdue for renewal? Don't think you can rely on council reminders as they can be less than reliable. Go and look at your permit in your car now and if your permit has expired phone 020 8359 7446 for a dispensation. Two things they probably won't tell you about the dispensation:

1. It only applies from the next day.

2. It usually only lasts for 14 days.

If in doubt move your car off the road or outside of the zone as little mercy is shown to those innocents whose permits have expired through no fault of their own.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Blogging away

Last week Mr Mustard had a holiday, he had a new motorbike and he needed to get some miles in and he went to Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and France (Vosges & Ardennes). Thus he missed the ceremonial inauguration of the mayor. He did however visit Vauquois where the enemy lines were very close in World War one.

Never think however, just because fewer blogs are being written that your bloggers are sleeping. They may be calm on the top but underneath there is an awful lot of paddling going on and a lot of juggling of work and family.

Between the three of them, Mr Reasonable, Mrs Angry and Mr Mustard independently submitted 17 questions to the Performance & Contract management Committee of 11 June 14 and here they are.

Public Questions June 14 Barnet Council - Performance & Contract Management Committee by MisterMustard

That entitled them to ask up to 17 supplementary questions which is where the fun comes in as the supplementary can be a bit of a curve ball. You can see the extra questions being asked here (thanks to Dan of the Barnet Bugle)

The public are, in this supposedly open and transparent council, only allowed 20 extra questions or 30 minutes, whichever runs out first. We ran out of time.

The answer to question 17 was wrong as the number of PATAS appeals exceeded the number of formal representations which is impossible. A correction is awaited. This should have been noticed before the public questions were published.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

PCN - retain the discount & gain time to pay

So it is the 1st of the month and you have received a parking ticket or a bus lane contravention. You accept you were in the wrong and want to take advantage of the 50% discount but you are stony broke at the moment. If you pay the amount now you will be short of food or travel to work money. What do you do?

(First of all if the PCN is for parking and sent to you by post you either have to pay the 50% amount within 14 days or the full amount within 28 days. You can slow down the full amount but you lose the chance to pay at a discount.)

The 14 days starts from the date of the PCN and includes the first day, so for a PCN issued on 1 June the 14th day will be the 14 June (i.e. add 13 to the date). You can appeal using the council's computer which is a horrible straitjacket and doesn't give you a copy of your challenge, so Mr Mustard almost never uses it.

You can appeal by post but somehow they can "go missing" so Mr Mustard uses the signed for service to be sure.

Best of all is to use the email method. They don't directly advertise this on the council website or put it on the PCN but do accept representations by this method as that is how all of Mr Mustard's are done. 

The address, which shows on this link, is barnet@nslservices.co.uk

If writing Mr Mustard would wait only until day 10 and then send in your challenge.

If using the on-line system or email he would still only go as far as day 12 or 13 and then send in the challenge.

In theory this freezes the PCN from progressing until the council reply. They try to do this within 14 days but often don't manage to do so. Then they must re-offer the 14 days discount period again. If they don't they have committed a procedural impropriety (otherwise known as a blunder) and then you might as well appeal through the next two stages (in response to the Notice to Owner and after that if rejected to PATAS) which will take another 3 to 6 months and give you more time to pay up should you lose. Do ask Mr Mustard for advice if this happens to you.

If they do offer the discount again then you are most probably into the month of July and got past payday and achieved your objective.

There is always the chance that your challenge will be accepted and the PCN cancelled and then you won't have to pay anything at all. Some recent figures show, although Mr Mustard has asked for them to be looked at again as he thinks they are wrong, that of 1354 initial challenges to PCN in March 14, 252 of those PCN were subsequently cancelled (although not necessarily straight away) so that is about a 1 in 6 chance.

The more that PCN are challenged the less profitable it becomes for the council. Together we can make them behave more reasonably.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Pay-by-Phone - an obvious flaw - easily fixed

An evidently persistent lady, probably one of his readers, has kindly emailed Mr Mustard to tell of her success in recently obtaining a refund of £30 that she paid in April 2013 in respect of a PCN which was issued because she had paid £1.10 for the wrong car. She had spoken to an operator and added her new vehicle and logic dictates that 99% of the time most people will have sold the old one. Why then, when you are transferred back to the automated payment system to finish your transaction and it defaults to the last car you paid for which will of course be the one you just sold.

Wouldn't it be better if adding a new vehicle wiped the default option and if the operator also asked you if you had sold a car.

That way the available cars for you to pay for is kept to the minimum as is the possibility for error.

If the council are committed to truly helping residents they will ask Verrus PayByPhone to implement such a simple software change.

If however, they want to revenue raise from your unforced error, they won't.

Let's see whay they do? (the council do read this blog & my tweets @_MrMustard)

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

(Mr Mustard recommends going on-line if you have access and doing the change yourself. He has actually registered 3 vehicles himself but he hasn't paid any money ever; it's just in case one day he has no other choice; for now, he will continue to park on the edge of a CPZ and walk).

p.s. If you ahve paid for the wrong car in the past and  ended up paying the PCn you might as well ask for a refund of the parking charge. You haven't, after all, had any consideration for it. Send your request to barnet@nslservices.co.uk

Have councillors cut their allowances by 9.5%? (No)

 
Barnet UNISON Press Release: 2 June 2013

Barnet UNISON organised a strike ballot which closed on Tuesday 27 May 2014 in response to a 9.5% cut in pay being imposed on our members.

Our members working for Your Choice Barnet have delivered a 100% vote for strike action.

Background:

In February 2012 Barnet Council transferred Learning Disability and Physical and Sensory Impairment services for adults to a Local Authority Trading Company (LATC) called Your Choice Barnet (YCB). About 160 staff (145.6 Full Time Equivalents) in Adults services transferred to the LATC. Following a restructure and cuts to pay on shift allowances there are now only about 105 FTE working for YCB.

This is a resounding ballot result and vindication of why Barnet UNISON has always said the additional 9.5% cut was unacceptable both to our members and the future for these critical frontline services. It is not feasible to continually attack low paid workers and expect them to take it without a fight and our members are not prepared to put up with joining a race to the bottom that is now common practice in the social care industry. The business case for this outsourced service was flawed from the outset three years ago and to date we have yet to see any financial figures which demonstrate this service will be able to deliver new business.

Our members are taking a pay cut in order for YCB to repay Barnet Homes a loan borrowed at commercial rates of interest!

Last year Barnet Council brought back the recycling service because they felt they could do a better job, which is why we are asking them to bring this service back in house in order to ensure a safe and secure service for Adults with Disabilities in Barnet.

The last twelve months have seen a sharp increase in the numbers of agency staff and zero hours contracts being used to deliver these services. The attacks on staff have undermined morale and led to an exodus of experienced staff. For many of our members this is a last chance to save the service.

UNISON Branch Secretary John Burgess said: “Our members have always been clear they are fighting for their jobs and the future of the service. We are now seeking an urgent meeting with Your Choice Barnet to see if talks can avert having to take strike action.”

UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis:

"Your Choice Care Workers are fighting to preserve a service to some of the most vulnerable people in society and I want express my admiration and solidarity for a brave and principled group of people."

"Many of our members have said that the 9.5% cut in pay will mean they simply will not be able to pay their bills and some would struggle to keep their homes. This outstanding strike ballot of 100% for strike action shows they have the courage and determination to fight for these critical frontline services.”

End of press release.

---

Care workers have no choice but to strike as otherwise where will these attacks on their terms and conditions end? If Tracey Lees, the £100,000+ a year head of Barnet Homes which runs Your Choice and the management team of both organisations are taking the same level of pay cut Mr Mustard will delete this post.

Blues & twos give Barnet man the blues

"Blues & twos" is the slang term for the blue lights & siren

Mr Mustard met a man yesterday who has ended up paying for a PCN because he went into a bus lane to get out of the way of an emergency ambulance. The ambulance is clearly showing in the photographs that Mr Mustard has seen, about 100m behind the car of Mr Blues. The council rejected his appeal on the grounds that it was too far away when he moved across.

Most drivers make room for emergency ambulances and sometimes put themselves in contravention by doing so. You hope that common sense will prevail and that you won't get a camera issued PCN, never mind that you will challenge it and be turned down. Cash hungry councils may take a different view.

What does the Highway code say? This, in paragraph 219:

Emergency and Incident Support vehicles. You should look and listen for ambulances, fire engines, police, doctors or other emergency vehicles using flashing blue, red or green lights and sirens or flashing headlights, or Highways Agency Traffic Officer and Incident Support vehicles using flashing amber lights. When one approaches do not panic. Consider the route of such a vehicle and take appropriate action to let it pass, while complying with all traffic signs. If necessary, pull to the side of the road and stop, but try to avoid stopping before the brow of a hill, a bend or narrow section of road. Do not endanger yourself, other road users or pedestrians and avoid mounting the kerb. Do not brake harshly on approach to a junction or roundabout, as a following vehicle may not have the same view as you.

So that means you don't enter the bus lane during its hours of operation as you are then at the mercy of an appeal clerk who may not show any and you will have to challenge your PCN all the way to PATAS to get a fair hearing.

Don't go over the stop line at traffic lights. The ambulance will have to wait or choose to go onto the other side of the road. 

Don't mount the kerb to make the road wider for the ambulance to get through. It will have to proceed along with the rest of the traffic until there is no oncoming traffic or the road is wide enough for you to safely pull to the side out of the way.

Mr Mustard can see how other road users might sound their horn at you to get you to try and move out of the way (and they shouldn't actually sound their horn when stationary at traffic lights as that is an offence, to sound ones horn when stationary or when driving after 11pm and before 7.30am in a built-up area except when another road user poses a danger) but if you are at a camera monitored junction, which in London will most likely include all yellow box junctions, you will have to cock a deaf ear.

Mr Mustard would be very interested to have comments added by any ambulance drivers as to why the ambulance was not using the bus lane given that there were 4 cars in the all traffic lane and the bus lane was empty (until Mr Blues went into it) and what instructions are given to ambulance drivers in their training about bus lanes before they are allowed to drive a blue light ambulance.

Mr Mustard would like to add that he has taken and passed the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motoring) motorcycle test and also retakes the ROSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) advanced motorcycling test every 3 years and is currently at Gold standard. He has also been in the back of an emergency ambulance to a hospital when he collapsed, for no apparent reason, in the street in his early twenties and a passing nurse stopped and came to his aid.

Is it only Mr Mustard or do you find the flashing blue lights are so bright now that it is hard to see and that slows down your ability to get out of the way?

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

The Finchley Literary Festival is under way - remaining events

Thursday 29th May

1pm The Reader Organisation - With Ruth Cohen - North Finchley Library N12 9HP

Try coming to a taster “Get into Reading” group, being developed across Barnet. This is an innovative shared reading model, bringing people together in weekly groups to listen to poems and stories read aloud. Thoughts and experiences are shared; personal and social connections are made. There will be two sessions lasting one hour, max. 9 people each, and  starting promptly at 1.00 pm and 2.30pm.

2-4pm - How to get your poetry published - Maggie Butt

Maggie Butt takes you through the things she wishes she'd known when she started out in the curious world of poetry publishing, from magazines and competitions to pamphlet and book publication, readings and festivals. Using the story of her own experience, she takes you through the highs and lows, the mistakes and successes and reads a few poems from her books. The workshop will be followed by an Open Mike. Poets welcome to read one poem of up to 40 lines. Click here to register.

7pm Ally Pally Prison - Friern Barnet Community Library, N11 3DS Maggie Butt 

A multi-voice, illustrated presentation from Maggie Butt’s surprising and moving first world war history, 'Ally Pally Prison Camp'. Maggie Butt’s book and presentation combines the prisoners’ own words from letters and memoirs, with evocative photographs, full colour paintings by internee George Kenner and her own poems plus The Story of Private John Parr with Mick Crick.

Friday 30th May

10.30am - Walk 'Literary Finchley' - Guide: Paul Baker - meet Finchley Central Station

An ancient road links two villages, Church End and East End, better known today as Finchley Central and East Finchley. Along the way, you'll see lands once owned by the Knights Templar, and a former Manor House which is haunted by a suspected lover of Anne Boleyn. You'll also see Finchley's connections to famous writers -- Charles Dickens, Sir Edmund Gosse and Will Self, amongst others -- and painters -- William Hogarth, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Ford Madox Brown. We'll also hear about the writings of Inky Stephens, and the close connection between his father and one of the greatest and most dearly loved of the Romantic poets. £5.00 - pay on the day. 

2-4pm – Dragon’s Pen – Church End Library, N3 1TR

Pitch your novel or story in five minutes to literary dragons for instant feedback and a chance to win mentoring sessions. FULLY BOOKED

4-6pm - Getting Started - North Finchley Library, N12 9HP

With Allen Ashley FULLY BOOKED

7-10pm - Spoken Word

Friern Barnet Community Library, N11 3DS

Donation of £3 requested for this event. “Spoken Word Showcase” hosted by Allen Ashley. Including readings from Amy Bird, Andrea Michael and Bill Todd. Come along and hear a great range of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. Reading spots allocated on strictly first come, first served basis. Enquiries to: greenacrewriters@gmail.com

Saturday 31st May Stephens House & Gardens*, N3 3QE

10.30-12.30 - Blogging & Twitter Workshop - With Emily Benet

Workshop: Developing Your Online Author Profile - Blogging & Twitter

The workshop will explore ways of developing your online presence to build a readership and increase your chances of publication. It will focus on blogging and using Twitter to best effect. There will be plenty of tips and advice! To reserve a place at this workshop see link below or email: greenacrewriters@gmail.com Tickets £15.00

2-4.45pm Main Festival Event - Tickets for this event are £5.00 and include a delicious tea or coffee and Danish pastry. Click here to book ticket

Caitlin Davies is the author  of five novels, including The Ghost of Lily Painter (2011), which is is based in part on a true story - two Edwardian baby farmer who were hanged at Holloway Prison in 1903. Caitlin has also written five non-fiction books, and several short stories

Alex Wheatle (MBE) is the author of several novels. His first book, Brixton Rock (1999), tells the story of a 16-year old boy of mixed race, in 1980s Brixton. Its sequel, Brenton Brown, was published in 2011. In 2010, he wrote the one-man autobiographical performance, Uprising.Alex Wheatle was awarded an MBE for services to literature in 2008.

                    

Rosie Fiore is the author of two bestselling novels and a novella, all published by Quercus, and two novels published by Struik in South Africa. Her novels This Year’s Black and Babies in Waiting were both long-listed for the Times Literary Awards in South Africa. She also works as a blogger and copywriter. Rosie lives in Mill Hill with her husband and two sons.

Greenacre Writers

Will be reading from their writing as well as Greenacre Guests: 

Emily Benet and Andrea Michael

4.45-6pm - Panel

Men Writing as Women and Women Writing as Men

Panellists: 

Alex Wheatle, Caitlin Davies, Rosie Fiore, Miriam Halahmy.  

Chaired by Allen Ashley. 

There will be an opportunity for audience questions also.

*Formerly Avenue House