Carlisle Council quashes drive's car park fine after public outcry.

Carlisle council quashes driver's car park fine after public outcry

By Thom Kennedy - 14th December 2010

News & Star

A motorist whose parking ticket caused an outpouring of public support has had his penalty
notice cancelled.

Donald Austin parked his Jaguar in the space at the edge of the civic centre car park in Lowther Street, most of demand pay display tickets, and paid for his ticket

However, he was in a disc space, where he would have received limited free parking time had he placed the disc in the window. He received a parking ticket but refused to pay his fine, saying the ticket he bought contained all the relevant information. Now Ray Bloxham, the Carlisle City Council portfolio holder for local enviroment, has stepped in to cancel his fine.

Mr Austin said he had been stopped in the street by people supporting his cause after reading The proof of the pudding is that the ticket has been revoked," Mr Austin said. "There has been an awful lot of interest in this, i had several calls at home and i have been stopped in the street.
about it in the news. ""I was due to go on the radio to tell the story again, but i said i would like somebody to come from the city council to argue their case, and i would prove them wrong.

The next thing i heard was when i got a call back saying the ticket had been revoked."

The story had produced a great deal of interest when it appeared in the News & Star, and more than 50 web comments appeared underneath the story, the majority of which supported Mr Austins fight. It could lead to retraining for wardens to prevent tickets been issued to cars with pay and display tickets, which show the time it arrives in the space.

Mr Bloxham said: "I spoke to Mr Austin and apologised most profusley for the difficulties he has had, and i asked the director to see if the charge could be cancelled.
"In all fairness he was within the limit."

When asked about whether other motorists could expect tickets in similar situations, Mr Bloxham added: " I'm sure we will be having some retraining , possibly in people's attitude to that.

"If you come to one of these spaces and put a note in the window and by the time an attendant comes its over that time you would expect a fine, but if its within the time i wouldnt expect that."

Fined £472 for hospital parking

The Welsh Penalty Charge Notice Processing Partnership?

The Operational Guidance for Local Authorities
Formal representations
11.18 Many enforcement authorities contract out on-street and car park
enforcement and the consideration of informal representations.
Enforcement authorities should not contract out the consideration of
formal representations. Enforcement authorities remain responsible for
the whole process, whether they contract out part of it or not, and
should ensure that a sufficient number of suitably trained and authorised officers
are available to decide representations on their merits in a timely and
professional manner.

BBC News
26 September 2009
A hospital visitor with walking difficulties who put his disabled badge the wrong way around in his car as he parked has been fined £472.
Christopher Dunn, of Anglesey, was initially fined £30 after parking in a disabled bay as he took his wife for cancer tests at Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor.
He disputed the charge and thought it had been dropped. But he has now been given a bill for over 15 times as much.
Gwynedd council, which runs the car park, said people can appeal on fines.

Ysbyty Gwynedd said the car park is free for those using the hospital, and its traffic wardens patrol the area once a day.
Mr Dunn, 38, said he took his wife Michelle to the hospital in Bangor in March at about 0730 BST for exploratory surgery to see whether lumps and cysts she had were cancerous.

"To be honest I was more concerned about my wife than making sure my badge was up correctly," said Mr Dunn, who lives with his wife and two children in Bodedern
"When I later saw I had a ticket I was so annoyed. Basically I had put the badge back-to-front by accident, so my picture was showing rather than the expiry date.
"But they could have easily checked on the tax disc that the car was for a disabled person or even come to look for us in the hospital.
"I just thought the fine was so petty."

He said he queried the fine and was under the impression it had been withdrawn.
But six months later, he was visited by a woman who said she had been sent by a bailiff firm called Proserve in Colwyn Bay to collect the fine - which now amounted to £472.
A spokesman for the company said it worked for Gwynedd council and had taken so long to track Mr Dunn down because he had moved house.

Seize goods
Mr Dunn said: "The woman explained that either we pay or she would call some other people who would seize goods worth £1,000 from me.
"I didn't have that kind of money because I cannot work and so I had to ring my dad and ask him to pay it. He was livid."
Mr Dunn was in the RAF for more than seven years and served in the Falklands.
But an accident while he had a lumbar puncture procedure while in hospital with suspected meningitis has left him with walking difficulties and sciatica problems.
Staff at the constituency office of Anglesey Assembly Member Ieuan Wyn Jones - who is also Plaid Cymru leader and deputy first minister - said they were looking into the case.
Gwynedd council said it called in bailiffs only as an "absolute last resort" in cases where it had failed to contact vehicle owners who had been fined.
"Anyone who believes that they have been unfairly issued with a parking ticket can write to the Welsh Penalty Processing Partnership to make a formal challenge," a spokesman said.

Parking Victory over Southwark Council

When Donna became so frustrated a Southwark Council's refusal to believe that she had not overstayed parking using her Blue Badge (for her registered blind son) she contacted Parking Appeals.

What makes this case even more offensive is that Donna, a busy Mum with three children one of whom has a disability and a full-time job, supplied video evidence as proof that she was not at the location in question during the period alleged. She had gone to school where she works as a teaching assistant after dropping him off and then returned to pick him up for lunch some three hours later. The Council claimed she had been parked there all that time.

When appeals fell on deaf ears we passed the case over to Oliver Mishcon ... aka Judge Tread.

Southwark capitulated and cancelled the ticket.

This is a warning to all councils out there who think that their glory days of picking on and abusing motorists and vulnerable members of society are going to continue ... you could not be more wrong. Game's up guys ... and all those years where you have thought you were above the law are now going to come back and haunt you.

To the whistleblowers ... keep the information coming, its only a matter of time before this out of control, lawless highway robbery that passes itself off as 'civil parking enforcement' is brought to an end.