CPZ Documents released under FoI ...

I will make no comment and let the content of these recently acquired documents speak for themselves.
More will follow.
What must be remembered is that there are documents relating to CPZs which the Department for Transport refused to disclose to Lord Lucas under the Freedom of Information Act.

Stephen Sauvain QC, mentioned below, also represented Sunderland City Council at my first parking ticket adjudication. The appeal was against a handful of £60 parking tickets and the Council brought in the country's 'expert' to handle a simple appeal (and then for further advice) at a cost to Sunderland ratepayers now believed to run into six figures.

Nearly half of parking tickets were unpaid

If the figures are skewed by a small number of individuals with lots of outstanding fines the question has to be asked as to why the council are not or have not taken action.

Scarborough Evening News
By Martin Herron
18 September 2009

NEARLY half the parking tickets issued in Scarborough last year were unpaid, it has been revealed.
Of 22,413 tickets handed out, 9,467 were not paid – more than 42 per cent of the total.

The authority's parking services made a profit of more than £500,000 in 2008-09, with £573,549 of its income coming from penalty charge notices.
Scarborough's traffic wardens, now civil enforcement officers, issued more than £500,000 worth of unpaid tickets between March 2008 and March 2009.
Scarborough's parking blackspot was Albemarle Crescent, where 853 parking notices were issued, and the most ticketed car park was St Thomas Street Upper, where 414 tickets were issued.
Cllr Andrew Backhouse, Scarborough Council's cabinet member with responsibility for parking services, said the high unpaid figure needed to be put in context and that the actions of a small group of drivers tended to skew them."I know of one individual who has over 100 unpaid tickets. The impact of a few individuals like this can have a serious effect on figures – there could be around five or six people responsible for 600 to 800 unpaid tickets.
"The amount unpaid looks bad on paper but you must remember it's a snapshot and many of the fines will have been paid by now."

BBC Reports on refunds for Yorkshire motorists

Another piece by the BBC's Look North on 30th May 2008, this time highlighting how many Yorkshire councils have been fining people illegally ... setting up a potential windfall for motorists bigger than the bank charges fiasco.

Expert explains parking law

Motoring lawyer Oliver Mishcon explains what effects the government advice about illegal parking fines could have.

Illegal parking fines row

The government says councils should consider giving back money collected from illegal parking fines.

This story was initially covered nationally on BBC breakfast and is now slowly gathering momentum across the regions.

How much money has your council had illegally?

How many signs and lines do not comply with the law in your area?

Do you work for a council who is trying to cover this up? If so, let us know.

All communications are treated in the strictest confidence enquiries@parkingappeals.co.uk

It's only a matter of time before the very reluctant Police forces (who see no criminality in 'councils' deceiving the public) across the land are forced to investigate what has become the biggest highway robbery since Dick Turpin rode Black Bess.

Perhaps someone so incensed with the injustice of it all will say enough is enough or, have you paid a ticket you believe was issued in an unlawfully marked rea that the council knew was illegal?

Drop us a line...