Diplomatic Row continues

Diplomatic parking bays 'unlawful since the 80s'
Islington Gazette
nlnews@archant.co.uk
11 February 2010

ALL tickets handed out in two "unlawful" parking bays could have to be repaid by Islington Council.The two bays - in White Lion Street, Angel, and Cowper Street, Finsbury - are reserved for diplomats. But Islington Council failed to get the proper permission from the secretary of state for transport before installing the road signs - which means every parking fine and car-towing carried out is unenforceable. The White Lion Street bay is reserved for the Eritrean Embassy, while the Cowper Street one is used by the International Mobile Satellite Organisation, which has full diplomatic status under an agreement with the Government.

Islington Council insists the revelation about the bays will have little effect, as no tickets were issued in either bay last year, but anyone issued with tickets in the bays since as far back as the 1980s could have a case for their money back.Across the capital, there are 346 diplomatic bays in total, and Westminster, Camden, and Kensington and Chelsea councils are all in the same boat.

Neil Herron, of the Motorists' Legal Challenge group, said: "The diplomatic bays issue will have huge implications. This is 22 years of unlawful unlawfully derived income. "If councils paid more attention to getting everything right they would not now be in the position of having to refund millions. This is what happens when corners are cut in the pursuit of a cash cow. "Fairness and justice is a two-way street and councils now have a duty to refund those fined unlawfully."

An Islington Council spokesman said: "There are two diplomatic bays in Islington and no Penalty Charge Notices for either of them were issued in 2009. We were unaware of an issue regarding special authorisation for signage in these bays and are looking into this.

Parking black holes set to appear in council's budgets

Are the black holes starting to appear because drivers are becoming more knowledgeable and therefore appealing more and more tickets successfully?

Cautious drivers 'leave council with a £1m black hole'
Islington Gazette
nlnews@archant.co.uk
01 October 2008

ISLINGTON Council has a £1million "black hole" in its finances - because cautious drivers are getting fewer tickets, it is claimed. A shortfall of between £700,000 and £1.4 million is expected in parking revenue this year as hard-hit motorists take much more care not to get fined.

Finance chief Andrew Cornwell made the admission at an Islington Town Hall meeting. Warning his colleagues on the council executive of the impact of the credit crunch, he said:
"This financial report is very different from financial reports I have been able to give you in the past. "I have been warning for several months that times are going to get hard. The rainy day that we have been putting money aside for has arrived."

He added: "A lot of this is due to a shortfall in parking money and it is related to the economy. People are more careful on compliance with parking regulations in this situation."

Barrie Segal, who fronts appealnow.com, a ticket appeal website, said:
"Parking is not intended to raise revenue - in fact it is illegal to specifically raise money from parking fines. If there is a black hole in their finances caused by less parking fines it would suggest they have been using it as a revenue raiser."

Mark Wallace, of the Taxpayer's Alliance, said:
"This proves what motorists have long suspected - councils do exploit parking fines as a revenue stream. If that income is now falling the council have only themselves to blame for relying on it as a source of income when they weren't meant to."

Councillor James Murray, Islington Labour's spokesman on environment, said:
"Islington's Lib-Dems have had to admit what we have all suspected - they run parking for profit, not for people. We are calling on the council to give a fair deal for people on parking and stop treating it like some endless money-pot."

But Councillor Greg Foxsmith (Lib-Dem) said:
"We control parking to protect spaces for residents and to stop roads getting clogged. If everyone parked correctly there would be no parking revenue. Things are moving in the right direction with a fall in revenue as more park correctly and that is reflected in our budget.

You can do it the easy way or the hard way ...

As peoples' frustration over parking enforcement continues some are driven to desperate measures to get that ticket cancelled...


May we humbly suggest that an easier solution would be to contact Parking Appeals.co.uk
;-) and we will show you how to successfully appeal with a lot less effort.

Parking protestor wins appeal
Woodford Green Guardian
4th September 2008

AN irate motorist who chained herself to the railings of a vehicle pound after being fined £250 has won her parking appeal.

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi was angered when officials gave her the bill but instead of stumping up the cash she decided to chain herself to the pound's railings. More ...

Now she has been told that her appeal has been successful and she does not have to pay her fine.

Islington Parking Blunder ...

The penny is starting to drop as our latest revelations appear on BBC Breakfast ... and it is what we have been saying for years ... that any council whose restrictions are unlawful cannot benefit from motorists who have been misled. This is 'unjust enrichment' and MUST be refunded.

The blunders are not only on signs and lines and Penalty Charge Notices. Here is the latest involving the Traffic Orders, and Islington are not the only council by a long way.

Similarly, monies taken unlawfully must be refunded and Traffic Orders incorrectly drafted cannot be enforced.

Date mistake could be a £1m parking blunder
nlnews@archant.co.uk

MORE than £1million in parking tickets could be invalid - claims a campaigner who wants Islington Council to give the money back.Neil Herron, of ParkingAppeals.co.uk, believes that a council blunder created a 22-day window in which no parking tickets were valid.During that time, he thinks thousands of fines worth up to £1.8million could have been issued. More ...

The Alternative (Dick Turpin) Parking Awards 2008 ... the Dorchester

Breakfast meeting with the lawyers at the Dorchester to discuss the pending Judicial Review of a recent NPAS decision, which is anticipated will not only expose the reality that the National Parking Adjudication Service is not 'independent' from the local authorities that they receive 60p per ticket from but will challenge the validity of every single Controlled Parking Zone in the country.

On the CPZ issue the Department for Transport have already admitted that there is a problem which could lead to a valid challenge to every CPZ in the country. They were aware of the problem some time ago and may have to redraft the legislation to correct the error.

We will be making all the legal arguments available to Parking Appeals members shortly including the report from expert witness Richard Bentley which the Department for Transport not only had sight of, but agreed with.

Meanwhile, the F1 NED vehicle was parked outside in a 'pay by text bay' outside the Dorchester and within minutes the Westminster Parking Attendants had turned up.
"You have not paid Sir."

He was very polite and courteous. I pointed out that the sign was illegal and I was not going to hand over credit card details to any telephone number printed on a plastic sign held up with cable ties.

He disappeared. I went in for the meeting. Minutes later two Parking Attendants appeared and were captured on film by a photographer who had been awaiting the arrival of the great and the good for the lavish British Parkin Awards ceremony. (Don't forget to ask your council how many representatives they sent, and ask for full disclosure of all expenses).

The Parking Attendant can clearly be seen on his radio. Looks like the instruction came back not to issue. Are Westminster frightened of us challenging their pay by text operation?

Meeting over and delegates starting to arrive ... so we got our Alternative (Dick Turpin) Parking Awards ready. The delegates, including the representatives from councils and the enforcement industry proved somewhat camera shy.


We waited and waited.

The 'industry' that is so keen to take photographs of motorists committing contraventions and so keen on rolling out CCTV enforcement to monitor your every move ... not for criminal activity as CCTV was intended, but for monitoring of civil infringements for revenue generation.

What a dilemma that would be ... do you zoom in on the mugger or the parking contravention?

One is easily traceable and will get a fine and the other will take a little more effort and involve cost to the public purse and if caught, will be given a fine less than the motorist.

Are you surprised that the motorist gets the attention?

We waited to spot a representative from NCP Services and Richmond and Islington Councils to give them their Dick Turpin Awards, but to no avail.


We re-positioned F1 NED so that they couldn't miss us but they were still reluctant to be photographed and dived into the venue. Many however, were already in the Dorchester having stayed over in their 'from £234.00 per night' rooms.

By now we were attracting attention from curious HackneyBlack Cab drivers.

Once we explained that the back-slapping British Parking Awards were taking place the cabbies got on the radio to tell their colleagues not to pick up from the Dorchester later that afternoon when the great and the good from the Parking Industry would be leaving. They also asked if they could e-mail us their horror stories ... so come on all you cabbies across the country, let us know how you have been plagued by Parking Attendants and CCTV.

The Alternative (Dick Turpin) Parking Awards 2008

The Alternative (Dick Turpin) Parking Awards 2008

This annual event is being held at 11am outside the Dorchester Hotel in London on Friday 8th March.

It is being sponsored by ParkingAppeals.co.uk the organisation that exposes unlawful activity by local authorities and the parking enforcement contractors and assist motorists with their parking appeals.

ParkingAppeals.co.uk annual "Alternative (Dick Turpin) Parking Awards 2008" which, coincidentally happen on the same day as the British Parking Awards organised by the Parking Review has attracted many nominations from the length and breadth of the land.

Competition was fierce ...

This year's winners are:

The Most Inventive Council

This award goes to the council that has come up with the best way to increase their revenue. This year's winner is Islington Council who stooped to a new low to rake in parking fines.
When Philip Langsdale parked his car outside his home he knew from experience ther were no restrictions.
But when the 51-year-old returned to his motor in Highbury, north London, he was astonished to find yellow lines had been painted underneath - and a parking ticket had been slapped on the windscreen.
More ...

The Least Honest Parking Attendant of the Year Award

This goes to former terrorist Mustapha Boutarfa who forgot to tell his employer NCP Services (and they never checked) that he had been to prison for his involvement in the Paris Metro bombings. He was only rumbled after three years! As he may not be available to collect his award it will be presented to Richmond Council on his behalf as they profited to the tune of £150,000 from his activities ... and then refused to refund any of the money giving the best excuse ever:

No refunds because ... being a terrorist ... "does not constitute grounds for cancellation of penalty charge notices issued by him ... the parking regulations do not allow this."
Parveen Bindra, Legal Services Department, Richmond Council" More ...


Enforcement Contractor of the Year Award
This award goes to NCP Services who cancelled Christmas bonuses for its staff in Brighton 'for fear of causing offence to non-Christian employees.


Spokesman Tim Cowen said:
"We employ people from more than 100 countries and feel it is perhaps no longer appropriate just to recognise Christmas celebrations."
He also said it could be seen as unacceptable for a transport firm to hold alcohol-fuelled parties. More ...

Speaking of alcohol fuelled parties, 'Moulin Mule' cocktails and dancing girls, the British Parking Awards are being held at the Dorchester Hotel at 11.30am tomorrow shortly after our awards where NCP Services are shortlisted for a number of awards ... including the Training Award...
"Our future in their hands: the Btec Team Leader Programme."
Click here to see how NCP trained their Parking Attendants in one northern city, and how Mr. Cowen, spokesman at the time for NCP before he became spokesman for NCP Services explained their actions.

To view the British Parking Awards list click here