The Pymmes Brook Trail

Haringey play Hardball, then No ball

A Charge Certificate is a serious document. You cannot challenge a PCN at that stage, you can only pay up or await the court registration and then try to send the PCN back down the line once you are holding an Order for Recovery.

Sending a Charge Certificate when you are not entitled to is an unlawful demand for payment by a local authority (Adjudicators are quick to cancel PCNs in such circumstances) and would be seen by the man in the street as a Hardball tactic. However Mr Mustard's alter ego has been a debt collector for 28 years and has handled over 500 PCN in 2 years so knows the process inside out and upside down and isn't fazed by Haringey Council playing hardball as he is more than their equal.

Let us run quickly through this case of Miss H.

Postal PCN issued for a no right turn (please don't do this in Highgate High St when you have travelled about 100m south from the double mini roundabout, the camera will get you) on 29 June 2015.

Mr Mustard submitted formal representations (there are no other kind for a postal PCN as you only challenge the local authority once before getting the opportunity to Appeal to an independent adjudicator) by the Signed For service on 8 July 15. They were signed for in Lancing (where the scanner lives) on 9 July.

Going slightly back in the time line, on 6 July representations Mr Mustard had made on another PCN for this client were point blank refused even though Haringey Council had a signed authority letter from the client in both cases.

On 21 July Mr Mustard asked a more senior officer to stop the stupidity of refusing representations by a suitably authorised and experienced representative. This was for a different client, a Miss B, but he asked that representations for this client, Miss H, also be checked. The more senior officer "had a word" with the junior clerk on the Miss B case and doubtless repeated himself clearly on this case. Mr Mustard would have loved to have heard what the more senior officer had to say.

On 4 August Mr Mustard checked the balance on Haringey's computer. It was £65.

Imagine Mr Mustard's surprise when his client sent him a Charge Certificate dated 6 August for £195 which is absolutely impossible.

A procedural impropriety is committed by a council which sends a document it is not entitled to send.

It certainly doesn't make it any better if they can't decide if £130 plus 50% is £195 or £130?

Mr Mustard checked the balance on the council computer again on 9 August and the PCN amount due was by then £0.00 so either the council computer has a mind of its own (or two minds by the looks of it) or an officer with some sense has got hold of the file and tried to quieten Mr Mustard down by cancelling the PCN. There are two more PCN he needs in all fairness to cancel.

Presumably there is a letter of apology and bunch of flowers already on their way to Miss H? There should be after sending such a worrying missive as an illegal Charge Certificate but parking seem to have their own moral code which doesn't include much in the way of morals.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Prohibition on motor vehicles - such an easy mistake to make

This is such an easy mistake to make, especially at 30mph. The main road you can see is the A40 heading wast towards the Hangar Lane gyratory. Mr Mustard is about to enter the Boden shop which is behind him and buy three bright floral shirts. The road to the left is Connell Crescent, W5 and is narrow and has historically been used as a bit of a rat run, and to park in for the nearby station, and the two signs like this one

put paid to the rat running from 3pm to 7pm on weekdays (the times and days are on the rectangular sign below)

Do look out for this sign and do not enter during the banned times because as sure as eggs is eggs the camera will get you. Mr Mustard has been consulted twice in two days about this location.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

How to make Saracens Event Days 100% clear to motorists

These signs might currently cost AU$5,000 a pop (c. £2,350) but the price will fall rapidly as usage takes off.

Mr Mustard can see that these could be deployed on every bay in the Saracens Zone and easily be kept permanently updated with the date of the next event. Motorists would then have no excuse if they missed the date and the number of PCN would plummet (do you see a reason why Barnet Council might not install them? oh you cynic).

Parking management do read the blog and also probably know about this new kind of sign. Let's see what they do.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

A new leisure facility opens in Brent - an obstacle course

The biggest obstacle to be found in Brent?

Mr Mustard has, for the last 4 months, been helping a lady who is suffering from a personality disorder and stress, to deal with her various PCN. He didn't find out about the one for Brent until he had been helping her for a month. Let us call her Miss O.

The first document Mr Mustard saw was a Charge Certificate so he was already up against the clock and the process.

The problem had been caused by Miss O having 12 residential addresses in 2013/14. No matter how quick you were to notify the DVLA each time you moved the system would not be able to keep up with you and a council tends not to check your address at the DVLA for each new document as it costs money. Before showing Mr Mustard the charge certificate Miss O emailed the council and asked the council to send her a copy of the PCN as she had not received it and advised them of a new address.

This is the reply that she received.

It is perturbing that Brent Council did not take into account the Code of Practice of London Councils who who run the joint committee which have statutory responsibility for certain parking matters in London. Sadly, a local authority can ignore the Code of Practice and there is nothing much one can do about it.

Fine words don't lead to buttered parsnips in Brent

What is much worse is that this letter was sent to the address which clearly Miss O had left. Luckily the letter did reach her. How stupid an act was it to write to an address you have been told is no longer the address of Miss O, following which you then escalate her PCN to bailiffs as Miss O has not responded to official documentation.

What Brent Council cannot do though is to make up their own rules as they did when demanding proof of the new address. At this point, 29 May, Mr Mustard sent one of his "too difficult" emails. Here are the contents of it:

---

I represent Miss O of redacted address as attached authority. The authority have refused to accept a notification of change address without documentary proof. There is no legislation that requires them to act in such a way. I draw to the attention of the authority that an independent adjudicator is quite happy to accept any address of which it is notified of, as 2(2)(c) of the Schedule to the Appeal Regulations as are the DVLA.

My client tells me she has had 12 addresses during 2013/14 one of which was in Brent.

My client is also unwell, as per the attached sick note, and struggles to remember things.

Given the lack of paperwork in this case, my client cannot locate the Charge Certificate about which she emailed you, I do need the assistance of the authority please.

A simple list of the dates of all communications in and out and the address to which the council sent each of its documents will enable me to decide what to advise my client about the PCN.

My client thinks that she must have stopped briefly to ask for directions (you have the advantage of a video recording which is not available to me on-line although you might be prepared to send me a copy on a dvd to my home?) but it does appear from the still photos that the lights of the vehicle are on which is consistent with what she says (no-one could reasonably be expected to remember exactly what they were doing exactly in an unknown corner of London on a date some 18 months ago) and you could not today issue a PCN by post based on cctv thanks to a change in the law.

Given the sickness of my client, the presumed briefness of the stop, the passage of time and the fact that only a CEO on foot could now issue a PCN for this contravention (and his/her time would be better used in giving out directions rather than a PCN) the authority might consider it more appropriate, and a sensible use of its discretionary powers, to simply cancel this PCN rather than put my client through the witness statement, representations & Appeals procedure for what can only have been a minor & fleeting contravention.

Thank you

---

The acknowledgement to this email contained the following statement:

In order for us to deal with your correspondence it is important that you provide the following information:
i) Full Name
ii) Postal Address, including post code
iii) Penalty Charge Notice Number
iv) Vehicle Registration Number

If you did not provide this, please resend your e-mail, and include any missing information.

When we have received all the required information your case will be put on hold. The case will not progress or increase in cost whilst it is on hold. 

All the required information was provided.

Was the case put on hold? Was it hell as like. An Order for Recovery was issued, to the old address by the looks of it. Mr Mustard got Miss O to sign a Witness Statement at the TEC which would have the effect of taking us right back to the beginning of this process i.e. a new postal PCN (in this case).

Mr Mustard sent "too difficult" email no. 2 on 12 July (the first one was clearly too difficult as it didn't get the courtesy of a reply, the council were on notice that the motorist was mentally ill and so they should make adjustments, none were made) in the form of a complaint:

Dear Sirs

Your acknowledgement of my below email included the following statement:

see the statement above.

and my email did indeed contain the 4 listed items of information so you should have put the case on hold. You have not done so (as the balance on your computer increased from £195 on 12 June to £202 on 28 June, two days on which I happened to check the balance) and it is procedurally unfair for a local authority to act contrary to how it says it will act and that is the basis of my complaint.

The second basis is that you have not responded to my email of 29 May, some 6 weeks later.

On 7 July a form TE9 was emailed to the TEC and doubtless it is now with you for processing.

You can check the registered keeper's address at the DVLA and please send documents to New Address Avenue so that they can be responded to.

Yours faithfully

Mr Mustard watched his inbox, nothing arrived. He checked his Royal Mail deliveries each day, nothing there either.

What did happen was Brent Council wrote the following to Miss O. on 17 July 15.

Thank you for your letter regarding the above-stated PCN. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you.

I write to confirm that the PCN has been cancelled. The case has been closed and no further correspondence or notices in relation to this case will be sent.

Yours sincerely

Funny, is it not, that as soon as Mr Mustard wrote, the PCN was cancelled!

Now Miss O had not written to the council so how could there have been delay in writing to her?

When they don't say which "letter" they are responding to (there were at least 3 emails they could have been referring to) how do we know if there has been a delay?

A very sensible decision to cancel the PCN. A 2013 PCN at the adjudicators in late 2015 would not have played well for the council.

What worries Mr Mustard is which other less robust individuals, than Mr Mustard, are being bullied into paying up £165 when Brent Council have refused to accept a perfectly proper notification of an address change.

Don't let it be you. If any other council in London has acted the same, do please let Mr Mustard know by email to mrmustard@zoho.com

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard