The tickets were not lawful as they had no 'Date of Issue' (as has been confirmed by NPAS case MacArthur v Bury and more recently PTAS case Moses v Barnet).
Sunderland Council has decided it will not pursue motorists who haven't paid such unlawful tickets .. but tough if you have paid 'cos you ain't gonna get your money back.
The letter also reveals that the number of tickets issued after 16th May 2005 (when the Council were aware of the Bury decision...where tickets without date of issue were prejudicial to the motorist) totals 12,761.
Before that they had 'unwittingly' issued 62,936 unlawfully worded PCNs. However, as the legislation is quite clear (Section 66(3) of the Road Traffic Act and the Guidance on DPE 1/95 issued by the Department for Transport is uneqivocal) then they cannot simply claim 'but we didn't know'
Looks like a court case is going to bring all this crashing down.
However, one question I would be asking of Council Officers is
"Who was responsible for failing to change the wording on the PCNs for over FIVE months after legal advice had been given?"
No comments:
Post a Comment