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| Parking woes are everywhere |
This week the final score was 36 parking tickets cancelled and 17 upheld including some which were listed as refused but were in fact allowed, funny things statistics.
The interesting cases were
Mon 19: Council evidence very brief and no photos. PCN cancelled.
A motorist stopped in East barnet Rd and asked a traffic warden if he could park there. On being told "no" he went to the free car park and still somehow got a parking ticket. There was no note of his road fund licence number, no photographs and confusion in the council records as to whether it was Friday or Saturday. The parking ticket was cancelled.
A contravention for parking next to a dropped kerb was not upheld as the Notice of Rejection did not contain details of how to appeal which is a procedural impropriety.
A motorist parked on the pavement because his son had a broken leg and the father naturally wanted to make it as easy as possible to get the boy into the car to take him to hospital. The Adjudicator had to uphold the ticket as this related to the exercise of discretion which is outside his remit but told the council that they should allow the appeal. What sort of miserable baskets do we employ (it is not clear if they are at NSL or in the client side or both).
Another procedural impropriety when the Letter of Rejection said £110 when it should have said £60. PCN cancelled.
Someone got 2 PCN at a six minute interval. One upheld and the other to be cancelled.
There was yet another case with procedural errors so the PCN was cancelled.
On Tues 20 four parking tickets were cancelled by Order of the Adjudicator as the evidence packs had not arrived from NSL (is the usual reason).
Another case in Ballards Lane showed the vehicle being driven away in the photos. There were poor notes. The PCN was cancelled. There are a number of what look to be very opportunistic cases of ticket issuing where the driver has not committed any contravention. I think that if you stopped because your trousers were on fire, an NSL traffic warden would give your car a ticket whilst you rolled around putting the flames out.
In Hoop Lane the council / NSL didn't provide proof that the vehicle was inside a CPZ so the parking ticket was cancelled.
In Grahame Park Way a parking ticket for parking across a dropped kerb that was redundant i.e. it had no purpose, pedestrians did not use it to get anywhere, was cancelled.
A motorist who went to a Paypoint shop to pay and couldn't because the machine was not working had their parking ticket cancelled because they simply returned to their car and left the parking place. What else could they reasonably do?
Another motorist went looking for a Pay and Display machine (fat chance). When they didn't find one they drove off. The PCN was not handed to them as the traffic warden claimed. The PCN was cancelled.
On Wed 21 all four PCN were cancelled by Order of the Adjudicator.
On Thurs 22 a parking ticket was noted by the traffic warden as HTD (handed to driver). The driver said not and appeared in person at PATAS. There were not any photos. The driver was believed.
In a very interesting appeal the motorist had a letter saying that pavement parking would not be enforced in Cenacle Close NW3 (a very nice cul-de-sac just off the heath) and yet his parking ticket had to proceed all the way through the whole 3 stage appeal process. Now either the left hand and the right hand are not connected at Barnet Council / NSL or there is a cynical attempt to screw the motorist. The appeal had to be refused but Barnet Council were told to cancel the ticket all the same so that is simply a technicality.
A motorist attending funeral prayers parked across the dropped kerb of the house at which the prayers were taking place. There had not been any request to enforce at that location and so the parking ticket was cancelled.
Barnet Council were asked to look again at several tickets for one motorist where they had dragged their feet in answering his correspondence. I suspect that once they do they will have to cancel at least some of the tickets.
On Friday 23 an appeal was allowed for foot way parking because there were no photos.
Another case was for blocking a dropped kerb which only gave access to the dustbins. That is not a purpose for which kerbs are dropped under the relevant parking legislation and so is not an offence. The ticket was cancelled. Will Barnet Council carrying on issuing such tickets? probably.
In Crewys Rd NW2 the motorist claimed that the signs and lines were wrong. The council did not deal with the substantive argument which is a procedural impropriety and thus the parking ticket was cancelled. I can see from looking at Streetmap that the lines are wrong - why couldn't the traffic warden; it is part of their job to check before they issue a parking ticket.
On Sat 24 a motorist argued that he parked his car legally and due to close parking at that location his car got bumped into a contravention. He was believed. If you are sincere and honest there is every chance that the independent Adjudicator will see that; don't lie to him/her as they will be able to tell.
One case was refused but due to Barnet Council saying they would accept £30 they had to do so. The appeal cost the council £46 and the motorist nothing.
The final case was refused but without any sum of money having to be paid because the rules had not been followed by Barnet Council. Another £46 burnt.
You can gather from all of these cases that if you have an argument it is worth following it all the way to PATAS. There is a more than 50/50 chance that you ticket will be cancelled. You can either have a half day out in Islington or have the matter dealt with by post. The council are rarely required to send anyone to appear. they do it all by post, or more likely, don't bother as NSL can't seem to cope. If more appeals go in, including yours, they will be less able to cope.
Yours appealingly
Miss Feezance
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