Huddersfield Police Station parking bay is 'illegal'

In light of the decision of Justice Ouseley in the High Court Moss v KPMG it seems as though Kirklees Council now have themselves in a bit of a pickle. Accounts not signed off and more admissions of illegal bays ... a highways and parking department not fit for purpose. Now let's see how quickly they refund their unlawfully derived income ... Adur Council were exemplary in their actions.

Kirklees Council has been 'breaking the law' - right under the nose of the Old Bill.

Huddersfield Examiner
December 8th

Parking chiefs have been left red-faced yet again after it was revealed that the 'police vehicles only' parking bay outside Huddersfield's town centre police station is not lawful.

Drawings taken from the Department for Transport website show the Albion Street bay should be marked in yellow paint but it is painted white. The blunder comes only a few years after the Examiner revealed that Huddersfield Town Halls permit parking bay was illegal. The Ramsden Street parking space, only a few yards away from the police bay is used by the mayor and other dignitaries. It was painted yellow when it should have been painted white. Following the Examiner's story they bay was repainted within 48 hours.

Parking law expert Neil Herron, director of http://www.parkingappeals.co.uk/, said Kirklees was one of the worst local authorities for playing by the rules. Mr Herron, who has appeared on TV and radio programmes, said "its not a police parking bay, its simple as that. there are councils accross the country that have made similar errors painting white lines that should be yellow. There not traffic signs and its not lawful. It shows a sloppy attitude to their legal responsibilities, its not difficult to get the lines and signs corrected."

In 2008 the Examiner revealed almost 100 parking zones in the district failed to comply with the law. The expose showed illegal bays in Batley, Holmfirth, Cleckeaton, Heckmondwike and almost every neighbourhood in huddersfield. At the time Mr Herron accused Kirklees Council of catching motorists with unlawful parking fines and called for parking enforcements to be suspended.

The Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs) in Huddersfield and Dewsbury are seriously flawed states Government Official

Had a parking ticket in Huddersfield or Dewsbury?
Are more refunds on the way?

Parking problems ‘known years ago’
Aug 20 2008 by Nick Lavigueur,

Huddersfield Daily Examiner

KIRKLEES Council was told its parking zones were “seriously flawed” by the Government more than two years ago, it has emerged.

Following last month’s exposé of the Kirklees-wide parking problem a letter leaked to the Examiner shows the issue had already been highlighted by Government parking officials.

The letter, from an officer of The Government Office for Yorkshire and Humberside’s integrated parking team to the Department for Transport (DfT) in February, 2006, discussed the council’s bid to take control of parking enforcement.

It was sent to the council’s road chiefs, along with a batch of pictures of defective road markings and signs.

The letter says: “The controlled parking zones (CPZ) in Huddersfield and Dewsbury are seriously flawed. This is due to the use of entry signs that do not conform to diagram 663 of the regulations and have not been placed in the correct manner as only one has been used where are two are required.
“There are also uncontrolled lengths of carriageway within CPZs, which is not allowed.”

The letter goes on: “A large number of parking bays have been marked incorrectly ... double end lines have been used, which is not permitted.”

The letter also slams Kirklees’s pay and display signs, its disabled bays, dual-purpose bays, loading bays, drop-off areas and taxi ranks.

Kirklees, like hundreds of councils across England and Wales, was granted decriminalised parking enforcement powers by the DfT in July, 2006.

But the Examiner has now learned that neither the DfT nor the Local Government Authority have been monitoring the situation or have any duty to make sure the council plays by the rules.
In fact, it seems there is no authority monitoring the council’s parking enforcement as the Government Office, the British Parking Association and the National Parking Adjudication Service (NPAS) all said it wasn’t their job.

A spokeswoman for the Government Office said: “The Government Office can only advise transport authorities to use the correct signage as required by the regulations. We cannot force them to do so.
“The recourse for the public, if they believe they have received a parking ticket where the signing is defective, is to complain to the NPAS or, if they believe the council are not following correct procedures, they can complain to the Local Government Ombudsman, who will investigate claims of maladministration.”

A DfT spokesman said: “It is the responsibility of the council to place traffic signs and road markings in accordance with the regulations or apply to the department for special authorisation.
“Whether signs and lines are lawful are matters is for the courts or a parking adjudicator to determine.
“We are clear that councils need to make sure they operate reasonably and within the law. Every case is different, but we would expect councils to seriously consider contacting motorists who may have been wrongly issued with a penalty charge notice.”

This latest scandal comes after the Examiner printed a Kirklees list of almost 100 parking bays awaiting remedial work in order to comply with DfT rules.

Former Kirklees councillor Jeremy Fisher, who obtained the letters, said: “For them to say they didn’t know what was going on is tosh. We have got the evidence here in this letter.
“This proves that what Clr David Hall said is wrong; it shows they’ve known about it since February, 2006. All I would like to see is somebody made accountable."

Neil Herron, director of parkingappeals.co.uk, said: “The fact that there is no statutory body or watchdog has led to councils embarking on what is the biggest case of highway robbery since Dick Turpin rode Black Bess.
“The situation, because of the lack of scrutiny or censure, has led to the escalation of lawlessness by councils and officers who believe that they can act with impunity.
“The game is now up and it is only a matter of time before we see council officers in court and the initiation of a public inquiry into what has become a national scandal.
“I think there’s a lot of worried people at Kirklees Council as they’ve been caught red- handed.”

Kirklees’s assistant director for transport, Jacqui Gedman, said: “At a site meeting in March, 2006, which a Government Office official attended, detailed issues were discussed in relation to lines and signs.
“The council wrote to the DfT in April informing them of the March meeting and that the Government Office representative was satisfied that measures were well established to address the issues raised in relation to the controlled parking zones.
“The letter also gave the DfT assurances that where the council recognised there were non enforceable areas within the controlled parking zones, then these areas would not be enforced until remedial works had been completed. That remains the case.
“The council considered that the subsequent granting of enforcement powers on July 3 was an endorsement from the DfT that it and Government Office were satisfied with Kirklees’s approach.
“The council did follow the DfT's advice and did not knowingly enforce powers until such time as signing and lining was corrected.”

What's going on in Huddersfield? Councillor says no-one is going to get their money back

The Huddersfield Examiner reports today ... Are 1,000s of Kirklees parking tickets unlawful?
Jun 27 2008 by nick lavigueur, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

An extract from the report ...

Sheffield City Council was recently forced to offer motorists who were wrongly fined a refund, but Kirklees Cllr David Hall, cabinet member for highways, said no one in Kirklees would be getting their money back.
He said: “If we are aware that any area or bay is not compliant with legislation then we have not fined people for parking there.
“The difference between us and Sheffield City Council is that they had full knowledge that what they were doing was not compliant.
“I assure you that in this council that is not the case.
“As soon as we are aware that somewhere is non compliant we are out within days to put it right.”





However, a word of advice to the councillor ... it was a necessary condition of the council's application to the DfT for decriminalised parking enforcement powers that signs were marked in accordance with TSRGD 2002. So who has been misled? The DfT? Kirklees motorists?
The million dollar question is whether the council has enforced in any of the dozens of locations identified as non-compliant.

The Road Traffic (Permitted Parking Area and Special Parking Area) (Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees) Order 2006 came into force 3rd July 2006 and this was the point enforcement began and the point the council began enforcing restrictions it knew did not comply with the law.