Wednesday 12 November 2014

PATAS - w/c 20 Oct 14 - the drop

Numbers didn't drop quite as fast as the above ride probably does but this week saw a sea change at PATAS which must come from a change in policy in September 14 or slightly earlier.

The number of new Appeals registered at PATAS was 1,116 of which only 38 related to Barnet PCN. This is a mere 3% and finally below the norm of 4% as that is the proportion of London-wide PCN that Barnet Council issue. I can only conclude that the council have wised up and decided not to reject representations that they know will be accepted at PATAS and thus save themselves £40 for each hearing. What this means is that it is even more worthwhile to challenge your PCN.

There were 58 hearings of which 37 were won by the motorist (64%) so that statistic stayed good and high. I must warn you though that it will drop as the council get better at sorting out good challenges from bad ones.

Five cases they got wrong in this week, and for which PCNs were cancelled are as follows:

- Two bus lane PCNs were issued at the same time in two different locations. They could not survive as one car can only be in one place.

- Four bus lane PCNs were issued as two identical pairs. Two lived and 2 were cancelled.

- What the motorist displayed as his free ticket was in fact the visa receipt of the previous motorist which must have been left behind.

- The wrong PCN was produced in evidence so the council not only lost but possibly also breached the Data Protection Act.

- A PCN sent by post was not received and thus was held not to have been served. End of game.

Keep those Appeals coming and make sure you have some good arguable grounds.

Yours appealingly

Miss Feezance

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