8 January 2018

Barnet Council can't see the nose on their face

One of the tactics, whether conscious or not, is to wear motorists down by repeatedly refusing challenges as only 1% of the public can be bothered to take the council to the tribunal (a situation that Mr Mustard intends to do something about). Here is a tribunal case which illustrates why you shouldn't take what the council write to you as necessarily being correct:

Mr G attended today. The issue in the appeal is whether he had paid to park his car in the Broadway on 17th May 2017.

Mr G provides evidence of a screenshot showing texts sent to the text number of the cashless parking service at 10:07 and 11:32 on 17th May. At 10:07 a request for 90 minutes parking was made and at 11:32 a request for a further 60 minutes. The appellant’s security code number was input. The details of the credit card are already recorded by the pay by phone company. Mr G states that he had carried out all steps to pay to park. He did not immediately receive a text in response but he states that this is not unusual in the London Borough of Barnet as it can take 30 minutes or more for a reply to be received. Mr G provides his credit card statement showing two payments made to the local authority of £1.50 and 85p for a transaction on 17th May. These payments would be consistent with the two periods of parking requested.

The local authority states that it has no record of any payment made on 17th May. Its records show that a request was made at 21:49 on 17th May to park the car until 09:00 the following morning. No charge was made because the bay was not operational during this time. Mr G states that he was at home in Kent when this transaction was processed and that he did not make any request to park his car in a bay at a time when parking restrictions were not I operation. I accept this evidence.

I accept the appellant’s evidence that the request to park was made when he parked and before the Penalty Charge Notice was issued at 10:31. I accept the appellant’s evidence that the payment to the local authority shown on the credit card was for parking on 17th May. I allow this appeal because I find that a payment had been made to park the car at the time that the Penalty Charge Notice was issued.

Interesting points from this are that this motorist reports a customary delay in having his text payment confirmed (and yet the council say that you should stay with your car until payment is confirmed - parking meters confirm your payment in seconds which is why Mr Mustard recommends you use them whenever possible - which would mean you standing around waiting for a text for 30 minutes, which might be the amount of parking you have paid for!) 

and that clearly payment has been made but the back office staff either can't see them or don't want to (Mr Mustard has complained about such an oversight in the last few months).

Even more odd is the system generating parking sessions which didn't take place

The decisions of parking adjudicators are public and entered on a register but Mr Mustard usually leaves the name out of his reports. Experts will find this decision under ref. 2170458153.

Councils - you can't trust them with the amount of PCN power they have been given. Do not take any nonsense, like this, from them. If you are correct, forget about the discount, and fight the council all the way to the tribunal. There you will get a fair hearing from an adjudicator whose pay is not dependent upon you paying for a defective PCN.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

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