It beggars belief that this story which potentially affects every Sunderland motorist was 'pulled' from the Sunderland issue of the Echo.It only ran in the County Durham edition.
Sunderland residents and ratepayers are already questioning the Echo's motives on this and a number of other issues, and why is it that we have to read Newcastle newspapers to find out what really goes on in this City.
We will keep our powder dry for the time being ... I am sure that there is more to come on why the Echo fails to be a beacon newspaper for Johnstone Press. It is quite embarassing sometimes picking up the Echo ... with not enough pages of news to even cover the bottom of a bird cage adequately for a budgie with diarrhoea.
It galls me to see the Newcastle Chronicle putting our local paper to shame.
However, as the parking regime is on the verge of collapse let us hope that the Echo reports the next series of events.
After all, the fact that the Echo has taken another big chunk of money from the Council for another page and a half of corrected Traffic Orders does mean that the continued parking shambles is good for somebody's business.
Quite funny that the Traffic Order corrections detailed in the Echo are in the same locations as all the appeals which I 'lost' because the Adjudicator, Andrew Keenan, said that 'all the lines and signs were correct.'
Do we really need an investigative journalist to work that one out?
Chipper could probably solve the mystery.
Looks like a rocky ride for Sunderland City Council and the National Parking Adjudication Service as their refusal to grant me a review of the decision and dismissal of my evidence gets ready for Judicial Review.
Imagine this in the High Court ...
- In relation to Mr. Herron's parking tickets ... Can we call the first witnesses ... the Parking Attendants who issued the PCNs?
- sorry M'Lud. They have been sacked according to NCP, for amongst other things falsifying records, wrongly issuing tickets and bringing the Council and NCP into disrepute.
- can Sunderland explain why the Notice to Owners have been altered since Mr. Herron's case? To remove the word 'offence' M'Lud and make them 'more correct.'
- The adjudicator stated in his decision that 'all the lines and signs in the City were correct.' He found in favour of the Council. Can we call the Highways Officers from the Council responsible for measuring the inaccuracies in the TROs and highlight the whereabouts of the 260 sign, line and TRO errors, and introduce the Sunderland Echo ... and the page and a half of corrected TROs.
- Can we call Chief Adjudicator Caroline Sheppard and Tribunal Manager Mr. Barfoot ... on why they though Mr. Herron was 'mad, mad mad' in their conversation inadvertantly overheard and recorded by Mr. Herron?
- can we confirm how many of Mr. Herron's Parking tickets (prior to these 24 being appealed) have been cancelled and why?
Over a hundred ... because we got the PCNs wrong, we got the TROs wrong, because we got the Notice of Rejection wrong, because we got the signs wrong.
With national TV documentary crews champing at the bit this is going to be a Court Case to savour.
NB. ... note the comments at the bottom of the article of Signs expert Richard Bentley.Sunderland Echo
City Urged to Repay Fines
Tuesday, February 06th 2007
By Marissa Carruthers
Thousands of motorists have been putting cash into parking meters when they didn't have to, a campaigner claimed today.
Parking protester Neil Herron is demanding Sunderland City Council stump up the hundreds of thousands of pounds it has dished out in "illegal" fines and charges,
Mr Herron had two parking tickets overturned after he appealed against 26 tickets which he deliberately collected at West Frederick Street.
He argued that the tickets are unlawful as there were two parking orders imposed - one saying "no waiting" and the other making a provision for parking bays.
The council is now offering free parking at the 13 bays and has closed off the pay-and-display facilities until it corrects the order. It will also cancel any outstanding parking fines and contact any affected motorists.
A spokesperson added that the authority did not plan to reimburse drivers unless they appealed against their ticket.
Mr Herron is now urging motorists issued with a ticket at that spot to contact the council for a refund.
He added: "Every single ticket issued in Frederick Street should be refunded and all the money put in the machines, too.
"They can't pay the money back unless they can identify the drivers. Because they can't identify every driver they will have to give every penny to charity.
"This could be a big charity windfall because because they have no legal authority to charge for pay-and-display there."
Mr Herron said this would amount to more than £130,000 as it costs 15p for half-an-hour at each of the road's 13 bays from 8am to 6pm. They were established in 2003.
A council spokesman said: "The council was unsuccessful in respect of two penalty charge notices relating to 13 pay-and-display parking bays in West Frederick Street adjacent to two disabled bays.
"The council will look at its position regarding refunds relating to the disabled bays, as they had lapping traffic orders (TRO), and if necessary will contact any individuals concerned.
"It does not consider refunds are appropriate where motorists would not have been misled by the signs in place and no appeals have been made."
But Richard Bentley, expert witness on parking regulations, has backed Mr Herron, saying that if the TROs were wrong in one case they are wrong in them all and a full refund should be given to everyone.
He said: "A TRO is a signed and sealed legal document. If there is something wrong with it then it is unlawful, and it is unlawful from the day it is written, not the day the fault was discovered.
"If the council does not backdate to 2003 and holds onto the money, they may commit an offence and could face a term in prison and an unlimited fine."
5 comments:
The Sunderland Echo is and always has been Sunderland City Councils lapdog,
Time and time again the Echo has refused to cover stories which have looked bad for the council or would have exposed corruption and or incompetence.
It's the same everywhere, Oxford Mail don't wish to know and the "reporters" there are bolshy in the extreme.
I'm totallly on your side on the parking tickets and I'm right behind you - but I'm a former journalist.
As we live in a democracy, you have no right to have your story published in a newspaper, as it's privately owned.
You can choose what you print in your blog and a newspaper's editor can selsct what it prints.
Try visitng the newspapaper office and speaking to a journalist in person if you want to put your case.
Don't go on about 'My Rights' etc. just let the story speak for itself.
"We live in a democracy"
Are you of your rocker? did you not learn anything from your time as a 'journalist'?
It is much more difficult for the average person to have access to a newspaper; all a politician or council has to do, is pock up a phone in order to get a point or story across and hey presto it's published.
So matey, next time you get your knickers in a twist,you might like to remember that Journalists have a duty to their readership, to ensure that information that is in the public interest is put before and above the commercial acitivity.
Parking crazy
Just when we were all thinking Sunderland council had a monopoly on parking and road sign cock-ups, along came Gateshead and South Tyneside councils.
A recent trip in to South Shields confirms that the new Parking system is going to run in to identical problems as Sunderland. Disabled Bays marked in yellow and the wrong size to say nothing of the disabled symbol being painted on the road !!!
However, even this has been out done by Gateshead council, have yourself a trip along Durham road in Low Fell, the kids have been out colouring in the road and drawing all sorts of nice patterns. None of which have anything to do with the Highways act as you might have expected.
Lastley, have a drive in to Eighton Banks from the Washington end, and you get to see the nice YELLOW 30 MPH sign, oh well it makes a change from the boring white ones.
Did someone say road planning was childs play? it only looks that way if you live in the North East.
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