Legal parking not enough

Published: 18 February 2010

• I WOULD endorse Andrew Lamb’s view in which he highlights our parking enforcement officers’ “fun and games” (Letters February 11).

Last July I legally parked my car in a parking bay in Zone M. I carefully checked the conditions on the post and felt secure knowing my permit safely covered my car. As I was suffering with swine flu at the time I was confined to a period of rest and in no need of my car. 

I went to my car after a week of it being legally parked and, to my amazement, it was gone.  After much stress of tracking it down I discovered that a suspension notice had been put on the post after I had parked and that my car had been illegally removed to the pound. I had to pay £380 to recover my legally-parked car. I appealed against this unfair treatment and elected to go to a tribunal which I am pleased to report I won.

It really is time for this parking enforcement service to demonstrate fairness and compassion to legally parked drivers. The time is coming when huge dissatisfaction will be demonstrated by the people of Camden who have had enough of this grossly unfair treatment.
BRENDA HUMPHREYS, 
Leighton Road, NW5

 

I went to Australia!

• I LEGALLY parked my car on the public road and went to Australia for two months. 

On return I found the parking bay had later been suspended and the car impounded. I have paid the penalty notice and vehicle removal fee and lodged an appeal against the £320 costs, which was rejected. Should I further appeal against this or should we all accept that we cannot leave our cars unattended for any period without having someone available to move it if needed?
MIKE JENN
North Villas, NW1

Vexatious

• ANDREW Lamb (Letters February 11) has my sympathy for his experience with Camden issuing vexatious parking tickets.

My secretary, my wife, and I have had five since last May, including one for parking across my own driveway outside control hours.  

The latest one was for driving in a bus lane outside of control hours.  I wrote to the council without putting a stamp on the letter – why should we pay for the council’s incompetence?

Camden’s enforcement, which has little to do with managing parking and traffic, is intended to generate revenue.  

It is a shambles.  

On February 23 the London Motorists Action Group will be publishing a Manifesto to reform the abusive unpleasant system. One of our recommendations is that councils pay a penalty for harassing citizens with invalid parking and other tickets.
ALEX HENNEY
General Secretary LMAG, 
Swains Lane, N6

Penalties 

• PERHAPS Camden Council could beat the firm responsible at their own game. When renewing their contract, include a penalty clause, charging for every ticket successfully appealed against, to pay for the time spent on this by staff.
Name and address supplied,
NW5

Trying it on 

• IN his letter (How to explain the parking wardens fun and games?) Andrew Lamb tells of numerous tickets wrongly issued in Patshull Road, then cancelled on appeal. 

Pretty shockingly, he even told how some wardens, trying to issue a ticket, have run off when challenged by the police.

Then you report the case of Annie Buckley (Fine waived, but why issue a ticket at all?, February 11). 

Despite having a Blue Badge pass, she still gets frequent tickets. 

“It felt like they were attacking me,” she said. “They should show some discretion and common sense”. 

Yet when the New Journal took up one of her tickets with Camden, they promptly cancelled it That’s the big clue of course; a lot of the time they’re just trying it on, gambling on the motorist going quietly and paying up. 

It’s little different to email phishing where the scammers reckon that if they send out enough emails, a few unwary souls will take the bait.

Trouble is, we’re not talking about internet criminals here but local government. 

This is, objectively, a monstrous aberration where any half-decent councillor should hang their head in shame and demand change. Yet all they do, at best, is look the other way.

At worst they swear blind that parking control has nothing to do with raising revenue, even though London councils raked in £560million from parking last year alone.

Confronted by a predatory parking regime, devoid of all morality, the motorist has nonetheless a simple recourse – the appeals procedure. Obviously the best way is to park legally; yet if a ticket is issued and there is even a whisker of doubt about its legality, the motorist should appeal, all the way to the adjudicator if needs be. 

I have done this successfully three times; it’s not particularly complex. There are numerous websites offering clear advice and the best news is that over two-thirds of tickets are cancelled on appeal. Some motorists have even been awarded damages…

None of this is fun to write, of course. 

We’re told we live in a liberal democracy, yet that’s becoming pretty meaningless; we shouldn’t have to fight for fair treatment, but we do. 

Petty officials only get away with their abuses because we let them, though – and parking adjudicators are still more concerned with fairness and legality than the Town Hall’s need for money
JACK SMITH
Fellows Road, NW3