A timely reminder given that the word behind the scenes is that councils are going to up the ante when it comes to parking fine revenue in order to make up any shortfall in their budgets.
A helping legal hand for the motorist
Daily Telegraph
4th April 2010
Philip Johnston argues why it's important to keep fighting when you think you've been unfairly penalised under one of many poorly administered or disproportionate motoring laws.
In Motoring a fortnight ago, David Williams detailed the avalanche of laws bearing down on drivers – from decriminalised parking offences to road pricing and pernickety new requirements like SORNs (statutory off-road notifications). But he could not have imagined in his wildest dreams that it might become illegal to smoke in your own family car.
OK, so far this is just an idea put forward by some very eminent doctors and has few supporters at Westminster. But had you suggested 10 years ago that smoking would be banned in pubs you would have been thought slightly mad, so don't rule it out in the next 10 years.
The aim of this law would be to prevent children being exposed to smoke in confined spaces; but because of the difficulties of seeing if there are kids in the vehicle, all cars would need to be smoke-free zones.
Of course, some privately owned vehicles already are smoke-free under the existing ban. If they are a place of work, such as a taxi or the cab of a lorry which is part of a fleet, then smoking is forbidden.
There may be an argument on safety grounds for banning smoking because it is a distraction from driving; but so is putting on a CD, reaching for a sweet or adjusting the wing mirror. Where do you stop?
It is all a question of proportion – and, as far as the motorist is concerned, the Government has already gone too far – though this is not entirely the fault of Whitehall. Local councils are culpable for the expansion of parking zones into leafy suburbs where they have no purpose other than to raise money.
The 1984 Road Traffic Regulation Act makes it clear that charges must not be levied to raise revenue, but only to make appropriate traffic-management provision. Yet most councils ignore this. According to the Local Government Finance Statistics 2009, councils last year made £1.3 billion from on- and off-street parking, and spent about £820 million on maintaining and enforcing the regime. So the surplus revenue from parking was more than £500 million.
Last year, more than nine million parking tickets were issued – up from 5.7 million in six years.
Parking laws in this country are unjust and often incompetently administered. Yet who speaks up for the harassed, frustrated and angry motorist who feels powerless to do anything about it? Certainly not the political parties because they run the councils that make the money.
There is a coalition of motoring organisations which recently published a Manifesto on the Reform of Parking and Traffic Enforcement calling for the parties to commit to tightening the regulations to ensure that parking charges and penalties are properly and legally applied. This is backed by the London Motorists Action Group (lmag.org.uk), the Drivers Alliance (driversalliance.org.uk) and The Motorists' Legal Challenge Fund (motoristslegal challenge.co.uk)
The decriminalisation of parking, which began in London in 1991 and allowed local authorities to take over parking enforcement, has added to the sense of grievance among those fined for infractions because the penalties are often out of all proportion to the offence and there is no means of pursuing justice through the courts.
But again help is at hand: ParkingAppeals.co.uk specialises in fighting such cases – and winning them, too. Did you know, for instance, that a ticket in a CPZ is invalid unless there are signs indicating a restriction at all entrances to the zone? You would be amazed how many local councils fail to follow the letter of the law, as they must.
For other motoring offences that still fall under the criminal law, like speeding, there is an option to go to court. But who will risk it when the Justice Ministry brings in plans so that defendants who can afford it have to pay their own legal costs? Or why go to the small claims court to fight an unfair clamping by a bunch of roadside cowboys when it can take 18 months to get a hearing?
But it may be worth the hassle – and there are practical guides to negotiating the maze of motoring laws, the best of which is probably (for England and Wales) Fight a Motoring Ticket: How to Claim Against Parking, Speeding and Other Motoring Offences by Jeanette Miller and Jonathan Egan. This is essentially a self-help kit explaining the legal procedures involved and the best way to maximise your chances of success. Certainly, if we all give up at the first hurdle then the tyranny will spread.
If they are going to quote the law at us, we should make sure they are observing it as well. If you are fined simply because your parking ticket has fallen off the windscreen, take time to check that the penalty notice was legally issued, properly worded, accurately dated and does not charge extra for processing credit-card payments. Often the authorities get it wrong. Don't let them play fast and loose with the laws they expect the rest of us to follow.
Philip Johnston is the author of Bad Laws (Constable) £8.99 available from books.telegraph.co.uk.
Showing posts with label drivers alliance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drivers alliance. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Parking: How Town Hall ‘steals’ motorists’ money
Respect goes to Councillor Knight for being the only elected member of any London Council to turn up to the launch of the Manifesto in the House of Lords. Would have been nice to have seen Councillor Chalkley there to speak on Westminster's behalf.
Camden New Journal
25 February 2010
by RICHARD OSLEY
CAMDEN has been named and shamed as one of the worst areas in the country for unfair parking by campaigners who launched a weighty new manifesto at the House of Lords on Tuesday.
Examples from the borough’s kerbsides litter a thick investigative report which concludes that there needs to be a “root and branch” change to the way parking penalties are dealt with.
The Motorists Legal Challenge Fund group, authors of the report, are asking MPs to consider the issue in the run-up to the general election and have recommended a new independent adjudicator to deal with grievances about tickets and wardens is set up.
None of its members are standing for election but the new group brings together the London Motorists Action Group – of which Hampstead actor Tom Conti is a trustee – and The Drivers’ Alliance as a unified pressure group.
Group secretary Alex Henney said in his experience parking enforcement in Camden in the past had amounted to “stealing” money through fines. One of the main claims of the group is that when local authorities realise they have made an error, they still often quibble over repaying fees.
Mr Henney said the idea of a new adjudicator came about because “there was nowhere else for people to go”.“What are you supposed to do?” said Mr Henney, who lives in Highgate. “We’ve been to appeals. We’ve been to the councillors. We’ve been to court. We’ve been to the police in some cases. We’ve been told we can’t go to a local ombudsmen anymore with our complaints – so the fact is there is nowhere else for us to go apart from expensive judicial reviews – over an £80 parking ticket.”
Other members of the group include Lord Ralph Lucas of Crudwell and Dingwall, who chaired the meeting, and long-term campaigner Neil Herron.
“If local authorities want to make a success of the law enforcement powers they have been granted then they need to earn the respect of the general public very quickly” said Lord Lucas.
The group want more “common sense” on the street, including more discretion for drivers who are just a couple of minutes late back to a meter. Another thrust of the manifesto is the familiar claim that local authorities see penalising “trivial” errors through fines as a way to raise money.
Camden’s unwanted namechecks in the full report include the sudden jump in the cost of builders’ permits from £5 per day to £33 last year and the introduction of a credit card surcharge for payments which is currently being challenged in the courts and could lead to large amounts of refunds.
Driving lessons – ‘We’re getting better’
ENVIRONMENT chief Councillor Chris Knight revealed his own car has been towed away in the past two weeks, costing him more than £250 in penalty fine cash.
But, as he admitted to having clocked up his fair share of parking tickets in the past, Cllr Knight said: “I deserved it. If you are parked in a silly place, wrongly, then you will get a fine.”
Cllr Knight, a Tory, was the only executive member from a local authority to attend Tuesday’s press briefing and to digest the Motorists Challenge Fund report in full.
He said: “I always say that learning is 95 per cent listening and 5 per cent making mistakes. I am prepared to listen to what these guys have to say and try to take onboard any points they have.
If you want to use the analogy: Tony Blair went to talk to the IRA.
It’s been hostile in the past over parking but I have actually listened to what’s been said, some of the things that maybe haven’t worked so well, and we are changing. I think people are seeing that.
“I think people can see it has got fairer and with the new contracts and new training that is coming in, I think there will be even better results in the next year or so.”
In the 2006 local elections, the man then sitting in Cllr Knight’s position was Labour councillor John Thane. In a protest at parking policies, he was singled out in the campaign with leaflets distributed in his Highgate ward urging voters to drive him out of the Town Hall.
Motorists posed in John Thane pirate masks in the months before his eventual defeat. Cllr Knight has yet to face the same venom as parking supremo.
“If you look at what these guys are saying today, they are saying Camden has got better and that I have been more gracious,” he said.
Camden New Journal25 February 2010
by RICHARD OSLEY
CAMDEN has been named and shamed as one of the worst areas in the country for unfair parking by campaigners who launched a weighty new manifesto at the House of Lords on Tuesday.
Examples from the borough’s kerbsides litter a thick investigative report which concludes that there needs to be a “root and branch” change to the way parking penalties are dealt with.
The Motorists Legal Challenge Fund group, authors of the report, are asking MPs to consider the issue in the run-up to the general election and have recommended a new independent adjudicator to deal with grievances about tickets and wardens is set up.
None of its members are standing for election but the new group brings together the London Motorists Action Group – of which Hampstead actor Tom Conti is a trustee – and The Drivers’ Alliance as a unified pressure group.
Group secretary Alex Henney said in his experience parking enforcement in Camden in the past had amounted to “stealing” money through fines. One of the main claims of the group is that when local authorities realise they have made an error, they still often quibble over repaying fees.
Mr Henney said the idea of a new adjudicator came about because “there was nowhere else for people to go”.“What are you supposed to do?” said Mr Henney, who lives in Highgate. “We’ve been to appeals. We’ve been to the councillors. We’ve been to court. We’ve been to the police in some cases. We’ve been told we can’t go to a local ombudsmen anymore with our complaints – so the fact is there is nowhere else for us to go apart from expensive judicial reviews – over an £80 parking ticket.”
Other members of the group include Lord Ralph Lucas of Crudwell and Dingwall, who chaired the meeting, and long-term campaigner Neil Herron.
“If local authorities want to make a success of the law enforcement powers they have been granted then they need to earn the respect of the general public very quickly” said Lord Lucas.
The group want more “common sense” on the street, including more discretion for drivers who are just a couple of minutes late back to a meter. Another thrust of the manifesto is the familiar claim that local authorities see penalising “trivial” errors through fines as a way to raise money.
Camden’s unwanted namechecks in the full report include the sudden jump in the cost of builders’ permits from £5 per day to £33 last year and the introduction of a credit card surcharge for payments which is currently being challenged in the courts and could lead to large amounts of refunds.
Driving lessons – ‘We’re getting better’
ENVIRONMENT chief Councillor Chris Knight revealed his own car has been towed away in the past two weeks, costing him more than £250 in penalty fine cash.
But, as he admitted to having clocked up his fair share of parking tickets in the past, Cllr Knight said: “I deserved it. If you are parked in a silly place, wrongly, then you will get a fine.”
Cllr Knight, a Tory, was the only executive member from a local authority to attend Tuesday’s press briefing and to digest the Motorists Challenge Fund report in full.
He said: “I always say that learning is 95 per cent listening and 5 per cent making mistakes. I am prepared to listen to what these guys have to say and try to take onboard any points they have.
If you want to use the analogy: Tony Blair went to talk to the IRA.
It’s been hostile in the past over parking but I have actually listened to what’s been said, some of the things that maybe haven’t worked so well, and we are changing. I think people are seeing that.
“I think people can see it has got fairer and with the new contracts and new training that is coming in, I think there will be even better results in the next year or so.”
In the 2006 local elections, the man then sitting in Cllr Knight’s position was Labour councillor John Thane. In a protest at parking policies, he was singled out in the campaign with leaflets distributed in his Highgate ward urging voters to drive him out of the Town Hall.
Motorists posed in John Thane pirate masks in the months before his eventual defeat. Cllr Knight has yet to face the same venom as parking supremo.
“If you look at what these guys are saying today, they are saying Camden has got better and that I have been more gracious,” he said.
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