Can I Get A Refund from Ealing Council?

“The guilty catch themselves” (Anon)

As a result sustained campaigning by this website and the local press, Ealing Council has announced that it will be refunding some yellow box junction tickets that were incurred since 20^th June 2008.

The significance of this date is that it is when Shaid Iqbal, Head of Highway Management and Ian Ransom of the Mouchel Group were informed in writing by the Department for Transport that they were not prepared to authorise the yellow box junctions that did not conform to the legislation, namely the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002.

The non-compliant locations are:

• Avenue Road & High Street
• Lower Boston Road & Uxbridge Road
• South Road & Hamilton Road
• South Road & Cambridge Road
• South Road & St Joseph’s Drive
• Broadway & The Mall

And there was some doubt over Uxbridge Road & Mansell Road

So, June 20^th is the date on which it can be proved beyond doubt that the members of Ealing Council knew they were operating outside the law and issuing Penalty Charge Notices fraudulently.

Prior to that date, in 2007, the Adjudicators at PATAS had been telling them that the yellow boxes were unlawful, and there is evidence to suggest the Department for Transport had advised Mouchel employees verbally that the above locations were considered unlawful as far back as February 2008.

But it really does not stop there. It is an established principle of British law that liability for any error does not start from the time that you discovered you were operating in error, but from the time that you started operating in error. If they found out they were issuing unlawful tickets on the 20^th of June, then by definition they were issuing unlawful tickets on 19^th June, and on the 18^th June, and so on.

In other words the fraud has been perpetuated from day one, since Ealing started enforcing these box junctions back in 2004. They must refund all the money collected at these locations, not just since June 2008. Until they do, the Council will have ‘dirty money’ on its balance sheet.

It’s time for a concerted effort. If you have a PCN from Ealing Council that was issued before 20^th June and you still have the paperwork then we would like to hear from you.

Send an e-mail to the address below with your PCN number, date of issue and the yellow box junction location, which must be one of those listed above to ealing@motoristslegalchallenge.co.uk.

The is ought to be a resigning matter, but no doubt as usual the guilty will survive and the innocent will suffer as a consequence.