Neil Herron on BBC's The One Show with Dominic Littlewood

Précis of the BBC 1 One show item (above) Thursday 13th May 2010

10 million parking Penalties Charge Notices are issued to drivers every year to a value of £328 Million !!

But 165 illegally-issued PCNs are cancelled every day which shows that there is a great deal wrong with the way parking enforcement is operated.

Neil Herron who won massive national support as one of the two “Metric Martyrs” has been campaigning for fairer parking enforcement for 5 years at a cost to himself of some £90,000

He is arguing in a High Court Judicial Review against some decisions of the Traffic Penalty Tribunal which, although claimed to be impartial and independent of the councils who enforce parking restrictions, is paid for by Manchester City Council from monies provided by all the enforcing councils.

The primary issue before the Court is the law governing the operation of Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs) to be found in many in cities where many of them are not set up and operated in accordance with the law.

Neil Herron’s argument is that the operation of all parking enforcement should be transparent, fair to motorists and lawful which it very often isn’t.

He argues that when councils issue PCNs, often for more that £100 t a driver returning just one minute late of being just one inch over a yellow line council itself must obey the law laid down by parliament themselves. Many councils have not been and are still not obeying the law.

Neil Herron is arguing the details of a CPZ in his home town of Sunderland where massive corruption in their parking enforcement was made public a couple of years ago. The only information on parking restrictions in a CPZ is shown on a notice as you enter the zone which is required not to enclose not more than 12 streets (otherwise drivers won’t remember the restrictions which aren’t shown anywhere else. The Sunderland CPZ is massively too big.

After he walked for ten minutes into the zone with the reporter they interviewed on camera five drivers who had all forgotten the details of the parking restrictions and agreed that operation of the CPZ was completely unfair.

The law on traffic signs is set out in the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions which sets out very clearly and easy to understand the law and rules that councils must follow before they can legally issue PCN.

Neil Herron has deliberately obtained about 120 PCN around the country to challenge them and expose the illegality of the enforcing councils. Most of them have been cancelled bu it is those that haven’t that are now being challenged in the High Court.

To fund his case he has had to remortgage his house. When asked if he was intimidated by the opposition to his campaign for lawful parking enforcement he replied the High Court is a scary place to be but the law is clearly on his side.

His Judicial Review is all about fairness to all of Britain’s motorists who have for many years been suffering what amounts to a stealth tax; he said it is about time someone stood up against it so that is exactly what he is doing.

The outcome of his case can affect millions of drivers and thousands of parking appeals that have been wrongly decided contrary to the law.