£millions more Scottish parking tickets set to be cancelled

Press Release

Parking Appeals.co.uk : Immediate

£Millions more in Scottish tickets to be written off in new parking fine mess...
as Parking Campaigner exposes council's use of unlawful documents.

On Friday the Scottish Parking Adjudication Service (SPAS) confirmed to Neil Herron of Parking Appeals that all current parking appeals have been adjourned pending a ruling by the adjudicators. The imminent landmark decision is expected to cause more embarrassment for the majority of Scottish councils who have been using non-compliant notices and it is likely cost them a great deal of money as they cannot legally pursue notices which are unlawful.

This further embarrassment comes off the back of a SPAS recent ruling in Aberdeen a couple of weeks ago where unlawful signs are set to force the council to write off many parking fines and follows last year's very high profile ruling by the High Court regarding the validity of Penalty Charge Notices. The knock-on effect of that decision, known as the Moses v Barnet case, was that where councils had been using non-compliant Penalty Charge Notices they had to write off £millions and could not legally pursue Penalty Charge Notices that they knew to be wrongly worded.
Edinburgh alone was forced to write off £6.5m and Glasgow and Aberdeen suffered similarly.

Neil Herron of Parking Appeals.co.uk http://www.parkingappeals.co.uk/ had prepared a case for Mary Watson against Perth and Kinross Council which was to be heard before a SPAS Parking Adjudicator on 3rd October and raised the point that one of the notices received by Mary Watson was not correctly worded and therefore was unlawful, striking down the case. SPAS confirmed in writing that Mary's case had been adjourned, along with all other pending cases, and the adjudicators were looking at similar wrongly worded notices in all other appeals. They will be giving a ruling soon but it is expected that all non-compliant notices will be struck down forcing councils once again to write off many more millions.

http://www.parkingappeals.co.uk/ 's Neil Herron whose online Parking Appeal company has exposed a great deal of this unlawful activity by councils across the country and who has saved motorists tens of millions of pounds states:

" The law is quite clear. A Notice to Owner and Notice of Rejection must state that an appeal can be made 'before the end of the period of 28 days beginning with the date of service of the notice ...' but many local authorities either state a period of 28 days or simply state 28 days from the date of the letter. Therefore, by failing to take into account the 'service' of the document which is usually 5-7 days by second class post, the appellant could be potentially prejudiced by this shortened period in which to make representations.
We raised this point in Mary's case but it looks like all pending tickets are set to be struck down and the embarrassed councils forced back to the drawing board to do what the law requires.
We have repeatedly exposed such activity across the country and the website goes from strength to strength. It is not difficult for councils to get the law right, and after all, this is what they claim that the motorist should do. However, in their attempt achieve the rich rewards that decriminalised parking enforcement brings to a council they have taken shortcuts, and now they are paying a very heavy price indeed."

He goes on to state:

"If local authorities have been using documents which are not legal then no financial liability arises. They must therefore refund all the motorists who have paid as the income has been unlawfully derived. The knock-on effect will travel south of the border and affect many councils in England. However, once again the Scottish Parking Adjudication Service puts the National Parking Adjudication Service to shame as NPAS have been allowing such unlawful documents to pass through with the adjudicators either turning a blind eye or sitting in blissful incompetence due to their ignorance of the law. SPAS once this has been brought to their attention has acted immediately and adjourned all cases in order to make a landmark ruling."

ENDS

Contact:

Neil Herron
0191 565 7143
07776 202045
http://www.parkingappeals.co.uk/

e-mail enquiries@parkingappeals.co.uk

For Mary Watson contact Neil Herron.

Notes for Editors:

Neil Herron is the campaigner who successfully led the Metric Martyrs Campaign and also the No Campaign in the North East referendum. He began campaigning against the lawless nature of Decriminalised Parking 3 years ago and created the http://www.parkingappeals.co.uk/ website to share the information 'that the authorities do not want you to know.'
To date the campaigning activities have saved £hundreds of millions as unlawful activity by councils and enforcement contractors are exposed.

He has featured in two Trevor McDonald Tonight specials on parking and the award winning BBC Documentary has recently seen NCP removed from the City of Sunderland, losing their £1m a year contract.

Last month's ITV 'Driving Me Crazy' programme showed Herron getting £25k worth of tickets cancelled for Southampton resident Daniel Mumford ... because the council were using unlawful documents.

SPAS is the Scottish Parking Adjudication Service and handles the appeals for Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth and Kinross, Dundee and Aberdeen who are currently the only councils in Scotland issuing Penalty Charge Notices under the Road Traffic Act 1991.

Scottish Parking Appeals ServiceJ FloorArgyle House3 Lady Lawson Street EdinburghEH3 9TH Tel. 0131 221 0409Fax. 0131 229 7189

Press Coverage on previous Refunds / Cancellations in Scotland

Glasgow
Council's legal error wipes out £300,000 in unpaid parking fines.

Edinburgh
Council writes off £6.5m in 'unlawful' parking fines

Aberdeen
Landmark win over parking ticket

Council could lose more than £3m in road sign blunder