Sunderland City Council's Parking Regime in its final hours...Grim Reaper spotted

Press Release
4th October 2005

Sunderland City Council's Decriminalised Parking Regime on the Verge of Collapse
Over £2,000,000 obtained unlawfully will have to be paid back to motorists.

Following on from the admission by Sunderland City Council (August 2005) that they had unlawfully issued Penalty Charge Notices to motorists on Taxi Ranks further pressure has resulted in the admission that they had also unlawfully targeted Disabled Badge Holders...and they had known about it since 2003.

However, an even more serious problem is the fact failed to implement the recommendations made in the report that they had commissioned from independent consultants Faber Maunsell in 2001 in order to ensure that all the necessary requirements were in place in advance of the application to the Department for Transport for Decriminalised Parking Enforcement. Therefore, the Secretary of State appears to have been misled when Sunderland City Council 'reassured' him in their application that all the necessary requirements would be in place before the commencement of DPE.
If the application was incorrect then the DPE regime can not be legally 'in force.'

Neil Herron states, "What this means is that every one of the 60,000 Penalty Charge Notices has been issued unlawfully and all monies will have to be refunded. Not only has this council been incompetent, there have also been deliberate attempts to conceal and cover up. The whole DPE regime must be suspended immediately pending the outcome of an external investigation. I would demand that the same amount of effort to go towards refunding the monies as went into the pursuit of the motorist in the first place. The arrogance of Sunderland City Council officials in initially denying any wrongdoing has meant that this whole debacle has now escalated into one which will have very serious consequences for council officials and city councillors alike. They have chosen to repeatedly ignore and dismiss advice and evidence not only from myself but also from other members of the public including Captain David Green who brought all this to their attention many years ago."

Sunderland City Council has also stated that they will not be pursuing Neil Herron for all his tickets, only sample ones.
Neil Herron states, " Bring it on. I will make a prediction that they will not pursue me for any."

Sunderland City Council has also decided to drop any proceedings against Robin De Crittenden who used the Bill of Rights defence against a PCN.

Copy of Sunderland City Council's Press Statement can be read here.

STOP PRESS: At 11.05am today in Frederick Street a Parking Attendant flatly refused to put a ticket on Neil Herron's vehicle which was parked on a yellow line. Looks like the game's up.

ENDS

Contact:

Neil Herron

0191 565 7143
07776 202045
www.neilherron.blogspot.com