Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Suspended parking bays - what a rip-off!!
Haringey council apparently suspended some parking bays in Lausanne Road on the ladder for "tree works" today (Tuesday, January 24th). Apart from signs affixed to some trees in the road, no other notice was given to residents and I have no idea when the signs were put up.
Two weeks ago, when there was definitely no parking suspension in force, my partner had to park her car in a bay about 50 yards down the road because the space outside our house was taken (often happens on Sundays owing to people coming from far & wide to the church at the top of the road). The car hasn't been used since but this morning before 9am, a parking ticket was slapped on it citing offence code 21 'vehicle parked in a suspended bay'.
Now I am not sure it is legal to suspend a bay with a car already parked in it without taking reasonable steps to notify the vehicle owner; what if the owner had gone away on holiday or into hospital, blissfully unaware of the council's intentions to suspend it later on?
Is there any way of getting this ticket anulled?
Andy
PS to add insult to injury, I was working from home all day today & I never actually saw any tree works taking place.
Tags for Forum Posts: council, greedy, jobsworths, labour-run, parking, traffic, wardens
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by John D on
-
The parking ticket should have instructions on it to tell you how to appeal.
-
Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
-
Have a look at Mr Mustard's site. It has a PCN appeal guide, which I've found useful.
http://lbbspending.blogspot.co.uk/
Mr Mustard - whose name is actually Derek Dishman mainly deals with Barnet. But has been known to accept cases in Haringey and other boroughs. Though I get the impression he has more time for Haringey Parking staff than many other places where the practice is Highway Robbery.
I expect things may worsen if and when the Kober Regime moves to privatise Haringey Parking Service. They are already proposing to raise charges to increase the profit levels. Monstrous. More tax farming.
As you'll see from the MrMustard site, Derek doesn't charge for any advice he gives. But he does suggest that people he helps may like to make a donation to a local hospice.
-
Permalink Reply by andy thomas on
-
This is a good site! But I'm reluctant to drag Barnet residents into a Haringey issue so I'll try and raise an appeal through the official channels as John D has suggested.
Part of the problem with not knowing about the parking bay suspensions in this road is I'm on annual leave from work and doing DIY, etc at home. So last week there were several days when neither I nor my partner left the house, so we didn't see the signs on trees further down the road - normally I might have seen these on my daily commute. I wonder how those who are housebound - or rarely leave their dwellings - are expected to know about bay suspensions?
-
-
Andy, I completely understand your reluctance to seek help from someone in Barnet. Thing is, from my contact with Derek Dishman I'd say he wasn't doing this for profit. Nor is he simply trying to defeat the system. I think he has a strong sense of fair play and hopes not just to win individual cases but to persuade council staff that they should be treating residents fairly.
I agree with him on both of these. When people stop trusting their local council to 'do the right thing', and treat people with fairness, it corrodes local democracy.
Anyway, I think you've nothing to lose by emailing Derek - his address is on the website. If he's too busy or thinks you've no hope, he'll tell you bluntly and honestly.
-
-
Thanks, I'll try this first although the last time I appealed a Haringey parking ticket some years ago, it took them so long to respond just to say 'No, we are not going to cancel the ticket' I had to pay the full amount since more than 2 weeks had passed. I think they deliberately stalled on that one to maximise revenue....
-
-
I'm sorry to hear you had a similar problem but I think this council can be rather cavalier at times.
Why is it Network Rail can keep us fully leafletted for 9 months on timetables, detailed progress reports and public meetings about bridge works being carried out a mile away (last year's Wightman/Alroy Rd bridge replacement project) but Haringey council cannot undertake the simple courtesy of leafletting 100 addresses in this street with advance warning of a single day's bay suspensions?
I'll let all of you know what transpires with our PCN challenge.
-
Permalink Reply by Dick Harris on
-
Something similar once happened to my car, ie the bay it was standing in was suspended while I was away and a ticket was stuck on it even though no attempt had been made to contact me. I challenged the PCN and the council simply cancelled it. I think they said it was on procedural grounds but, as usual, they did not explain why no attempt was made to contact me at the time. It would be good to obtain an acknowledgement that the parking restrictions exist for the benefit of residents, especially those who go to the trouble of buying permits.
-
-
Well I've challenged the PCN so will wait & see what happens. But the wider issue here is one of communication; private car usage in London has changed dramatically this century and rightly so, owing to vastly improved public transport services in the capital and greater awareness of the issues facing our planet. Whereas back in the 1970s a lot of us would have been using a car daily (and seeing notices affixed to trees or left on windscreens, etc about parking bay suspensions), these days I can go for weeks without using the car or even seeing it, far less seeing notices some distance down the road from my house.
So the local authority needs to wake up to these changes and find better ways to communicate with residents directly.
-
Permalink Reply by Morris Mustard on
-
The answer may be within the terms and conditions on which you were granted a permit. It may contain the, in my view, unreasonable term that you have to check the bay every day in case it is shortly to be suspended. Arranging your 3 week holiday in Australia you now need to add finding someone, who is insured & who you trust, to move your car should suspension signs be erected. Councils should make a note of who was in the bay when the signs went up. It is also possible that the tree contractor erects their own signs, does that make them a council officer? (which is what the Traffic Management Order usually requires).
If you think you have been unfairly treated then you really shouldn't pay the 50% but stand up for your rights and go to the tribunal if the council reject you twice, which they often do, as they are judge and jury in their own court & parking is all about the money in many local authorities. The tribunal is independent and pretty fair (I did 14 cases there last week & 6 this week so I have a good idea). I can assist you in return for a donation to the North London Hospice or my legal fund to right injustices that occur. I take my tarvel, Stationery & postage costs out of donations but nothing else. I did not lose to Haringey in 2016 after 20 tussles. ddishman@creditlimits.co.uk if you need me.
-
-
The discount: by the way, if you challenge within 14 days, for a PCN issued on the 1st, the 14th day is the 14th not the 15th, the council when rejecting you must offer the discount for another 14 days. If they don't, an adjudicator will usually cancel for that reason but do not point the error out to the council at the time, save it for the adjudicator.
-
-
Thank you very much for your kind offer of help in resolving this. I have formally challenged the PCN using Haringey's online procedure and expect to be notified by letter of their decision in due course. If this is rejected, then I may well take up your offer of help.
In the meantime I will check the terms & conditions of the residents parking scheme to find out if my partner or myself should be frequently checking any bay in which the car is parked to find out if a suspension is imminent. And also, to find out if the council really expects a resident about to go away on holiday to find someone else to make daily checks on parking bays.
-
-
sorry to seem picky but you have done the informal representations (challenge), which is what you send in response to a PCN
Once you get the Notice to Owner you make the formal representations (even if they might look informal!).
Not many people understand the procedure or terminology.
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
