PATAS - w/c 19 May - Council lose 0-30 on Saracens

Last week at PATAS saw 74 Appeals of which 58 were won by the motorist, a conversion rate of 78% so well worth filling in that simple Appeal form.

There will be many more reports towards the end of June as this week saw 1,298 new Appeals registered of which Barnet were 136 of them i.e. 10% of them despite only issuing 4% of all PCN in London. The reason for this is, most probably, that whilst the enforcement software was being changed there weren't any Notices of Rejection of Representations going out and now there has been a flood of them.

There were four notable things during this week.

1. A traffic warden managed to not photograph the part of the windscreen which had the blue badge in it. Result: a cancelled PCN.

2. An adjudicator consolidated over 30 Appeals against PCN in the Saracens zone, and save for one review case which he left untouched as refused, he cancelled every other PCN in front of him and gave a thorough analysis of what is wrong with the zone.

3. There were a dozen cases which the council did not contest, again probably because they were too busy changing the software over.

4. A regular appealer for parking in Nursery Walk was paid costs of £36 for each of 8 PCN because the Traffic Management Order and the sign in place do not agree with each other.

Keep those Appeals flowing.

Yours appealingly

Miss Feezance

PATAS - w/c 12 May 14 - Confused

Last week at PATAS there were (ignoring as usual the witness statement cases) 36 PCN which were cancelled and 30 which were upheld. It was all pretty routine apart from the following 3 cases which all ended up with a cancelled PCN.

Due to heavy rain the edge of the road was flooded and a yellow line could not be seen.

A suspension sign was not clear as to which 2 spaces were suspended.

The above bay in Regents Park Road, just south of Finchley Central tube and right outside  a Sainsbury's local, which will suck in extra victims, was held to be ambiguous. How odd can parking be that you have a single yellow line through half of a parking bay and only one sign on a pole, not two. This location has trapped over 400 people in a few months. Don't become one of them. Outside of the times at which you have to pay (8am to 6.30pm) there are times when you cannot park, which are 6 - 8am and 8 - 10pm). The £2 an hour you have to pay to park there would be better spent on food at Waitrose at North Finchley where there is free parking.

Yours appealingly

Miss Feezance

PATAS - w/c 6 May 14 - Cloned

It was a quiet week at PATAS as far as Barnet Council were concerned. 841 new Appeals were filed of which 43 emanated from Barnet, that is 5% which is slightly above what one would expect. Ignoring 19 Witness Statement (TE9) cases that were never going anywhere there were 79 substantive cases. Of those some 54 led to a cancelled PCN. That is a terrific 68% win rate for the motorist.

There were a number of notable wins for motorists:

• In two cases of postal PCN the traffic warden was held not to have been prevented from serving, in one case the traffic warden wasn't even at the scene.
• In a bus lane case there wasn't any cctv footage, that seems to happen quite often.
• Someone accused of parking without payment produced the little ticket you get out of the credit card machine, which had been upside down on their dashboard, and so were not held to have not paid. They should probably have been given a parking ticket for a different contravention or the council should have cancelled the PCN once the proof of payment was provided.
• A yellow line in Lodge Road was found to be inadequate to properly convey the restriction.
• In a very odd case Barnet Council tried to file a Do Not Contest form 2 days after the expected hearing date. The adjudicator refused the request. They also tried to obtain a 14 day adjournment 2 days after the expected hearing date, this was also refused. The adjudicator then heard the case and found for the motorist on the grounds of lack of evidence from the council. The adjudicator wasn't taking any nonsense that day.
• A motorist who lived in Portsmouth, and had a car which did not look like the one in the council's photos, was found to have had her numberplate cloned.
• Someone who was boarding a disabled passenger was allowed the requisite time to do so.
• Two ancient PCN from July 12 and November 12 were duly killed off.

Keep those appeals flowing and make NSL and the council fight to get your money out of your purse or wallet.

Yours appealingly

Miss Feezance

PATAS - w/c 28 April - A PCN is bad for your health

Last week at PATAS was another quiet affair in so far as Barnet were concerned. There were only 27 new Barnet cases out of 915 for London as a whole because of the parking enforcement software changeover.

The number of Barnet Appeals heard was up from the recent lows with 75 Appeals heard of which 55 (73%) were decided in favour of the motorist. there were also 7 witness statements which merely delayed the inevitable and 1 recommendation to cancel.

The cases were largely routine and four of them suffered from the same fault, Barnet Council, acting by its agent NSL, failed to get the evidence in on time with some of it arriving the day before and in one case on the day. A clearer breach of your human right to a fair trial (flicking through the papers on the tube on the way to an Appeal hearing doesn't enable you to finely study the arguments and evidence) is hard to find and those four PCN were cancelled.

Suspended bay signs are always worth a look to see if you were actually parked in the suspended section of road. Someone parked outside number 10 (no, not Downing St) and the part of the road that was suspended was number 9 so the PCN should never have been issued and is no more.

A lady had her 95 year old mother with her who was suddenly taken ill. She took her to the health centre and left a note in the windscreen. She came back to another sort of notice, a Penalty Charge Notice. It is now cancelled but she had to shell out £15 for a letter from the doctor to evidence her case. It is pretty mean of NSL, who handle challenges, not to have cancelled this PCN at an earlier stage.

A permit which was displayed was not visible to the traffic warden as it was dark. Again, once it is produced the challenge should be allowed rather than making people flog to Angel, Islington to obtain the fair result, a cancellation.

One ticket that was upheld related to passengers being dropped off in a residents bay. It might seem perverse but it is better to drop them off on a single or double yellow (don't leave the car unless you have to escort a pet, an old or disabled person or young children to safety) as that is what the rules say.

I anticipate a surge in appeals quite soon when all of the pent up Notices of Rejection (with PATAS forms) start to land on your doormat. It costs you nothing to Appeal to PATAS and you don't even have to go there if you don't want to.

Yours appealingly

Miss Feezance

PATAS - post Easter week

A quiet week for new Appeals being lodged with only 18 out of 906 being from Barnet. So only 2% against the norm of 4% and a quiet week for PATAS overall with fewer than 1000 new cases. The dip from Barnet is due to the changeover to new software. There will be a surge once they crank it up to full speed.

There were 48 allowed Appeals and 12 refused so that is a 80% success rate for the motorist (there were also 2 witness statement cases which I tend not to count).

Reasons for successful appeals this week were:

• The police pushed the car onto the pavement.
• Barnet Council / NSL did not reply to PATAS.
• Vehicle broken down and there was an AA report.
• The PCN had been paid within 14 days (should never have got this far)
• The council's Evidence Pack was late (NSL produce them)
• The motorist did not prevent service (which requires the use of force)
• Redundant worn out disabled bays at Hadley Highstone which are scheduled for proper removal.
• Had paid for parking.
• A Solicitor with impeccable records had not received the Notice of Rejection.
• A 14 May 2012 PCN (it should have been written off)

So a good week, if a little quiet, but that will soon change.

Keep those appeals going in.

Yours appealingly

Miss Feezance