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
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