Parking in Southampton ... what a shambles!

I thought Sunderland was bad, but Southampton Council appear to painted some of their yellow lines with a catapult!

ITV flew me down to film a piece with a guy who had £25k worth of PCNs.

It was like a scene from the Dambusters as the twin-engined plane descended through the Bonfire Night flak into Southampton airport.

The night started well with the taxi setting off to the Travel Lodge ... in the wrong direction. When I pointed this out to the driver he checked with base, and yes he was. Base then said to charge me an extra £4 taking the fare up to £16.
They were not reasonable and basically there attitude was "tough!"

I said that as I wasn't one to argue with them, and the driver was caught between me and his company.
I would just take them to court for the £4.

Two minutes later the call came in to charge me £8. I gave the driver £12.

The following day we filmed at Daniel's house. In a nutshell he has been pursued by Southampton Council over PCNs issued outside his house while he was living there as a student, and while he was waiting for a resident's permit. His three year battle over 59 PCNs has been very stressful, especially with the threat of bailiff's action for the recovery of a debt which, with charges has now escalated to £25k.
The arrogance of the council is staggering.
They have since re-marked the bays which were, at the time of issue of all the PCNs, not lawful.
The PCNs were not lawful as, amongst other things, they had no date of issue.
Some didn't even have anything printed on them ... yet the council were still pursuing Daniel.
The Charge Certificates were non-compliant meaning the court at Northampton was misled.

I did a letter before action for Daniel. The Council have not replied. A further letter is being done before we place the matter in the hands of lawyers.

The victory is imminent. For Daniel it will be a massive relief to have the stress and pressure removed. For Southampton Council ... it is going to be a very embarassing and costly lesson in how you should not deal with members of the public.