PATAS w/c 26 November 12

Freddie Flintoff tried his hand at boxing this week having previously played the game of cricket.

 

NSL traffic wardens could have been the people who gave rise to the saying of "It's just not cricket" but they don't do boxing matches either.

Chess is much more genteel

NSL are so afraid of the opponent, or due to their lack of training, that rather than even turn up for the matches at PATAS they throw in the towel before the start of the round.

 

I can't tell you about Saturday's results as the PATAS computer is having a rest. If there is anything notable I will add it later.

 

Monday's matches saw NSL throw the towel in 8 times so 8 motorists got their parking tickets cancelled.

 

Tuesday saw 5 more episodes of towel throwing. Two tickets were upheld. One for stopping on zig-zags because your blind son is choking in the back of the car. The second for a technical argument which had no merit. 5 other cases were considered. In the first the motorist has to stop in the road to open the gate to his property. There was another car in the way which he moved, the independent Adjudicator saw this as a merely incidental delay and cancelled the parking ticket.

 

A failure by NSL to deal with an informal challenge was a procedural impropriety so the parking ticket was cancelled.

 

A badly parked car was given a parking ticket, parking parallel to the kerb does look neater, but isn't a reason to be given a parking ticket. All of the car was not 50cm from the kerb and so the parking ticket was cancelled.

 

A motorist paid-by-phone and a B was recorded as a V in the car registration (a Spanish operative at Verrus?). The error is more likely to be by Verrus the provider and so the parking ticket was cancelled. Why Barnet Council and/or NSL take this miserable approach to what is an obvious administrative error is a question that needs to be answered.

 

The final cancelled parking ticket concerned a motorist who paid £3 and then another £5 to pay-by-phone and still got a parking ticket in the Lodge Lane car park. The motorist produced their bank statements and mobile phone bill. Barnet Council were asked by the Adjudicator to comment and none came.

 

Wednesday saw NSL throw the towel in 11 times so 11 parking tickets were cancelled.

 

Thursday was very busy with 4 parking tickets upheld and 26 cancelled. In 13 of these NSL threw in the towel. Other notable cases included a blue badge that was not displayed on the dashboard because the motorist couldn't reach it. It is always clearly displayed in the side window and so would have been easy to see if the traffic warden wanted to see it. The blue badge scheme rules say that if there isn't a dashboard in your car you must put the badge in a place where it can clearly be seen. A side window is an obvious choice. The independent Adjudicator thus cancelled the parking ticket but what sort of society do Barnet Council and/or NSL inherit which allows them to treat the disabled like this? My suspicion is that the traffic warden deliberately didn't take a photo of the side of the car.

 

A removal company got a parking ticket in the "High Street". They asked the council which one. Answer came there none. The Adjudicator noted that the local authority had been unhelpful. I think the independent adjudicators are starting to get a bit hacked off with Barnet Council.

 

There were 2 cases of parking tickets not having been properly served which happens quite a lot.

 

Friday 30th saw another 6 flings of the towel. There was just one case in which the parking ticket was upheld, for parking on the pavement. Defences to that offence are not easy to succeed with. Please stay off the pavement.

 

You can see what a complete mess NSL are in so it is well worth the trouble to appeal to PATAS. Keep those appeals coming.

Yours appealingly

Miss Feezance