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.

Ealing Council Forced to Pay Costs

Just a quick post to say that I has 17 PCNs cancelled yesterday against box junctions in South Road. What is even more astounding is that the Adjudicator awarded costs of £750 against the Council on the grounds that it was “wholly unreasonable” for them to pursue the appeals after they had been repeatedly warned by PATAS that PCNs for South Road/St Joseph’s Drive, South Road/Cambridge Road and High Street/Avenue Road were unenforceable.

If you have a case before PATAS for any of these locations then you must ask for costs citing London United Busways -v- Ealing. If you have received a decision in the last 14 days there is still time to get a claim in. You cannot claim lots, and you cannot claim for being inconvenienced. Usually you can claim back travel expenses, postage and stationary. OK, it may not seem a lot, but a large quantity of small claims will soon add up. Ealing will also bear the stigma of being one of the very few councils stupid enough to have upset the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service so much that they have seen fit to award costs – something that very rarely happens.

This is not the end of the story by any means. Watch this space…

Groundhog Day

“Everyone rises to their level of incompetence.” (Laurence J. Peter – The Peter Principle)

You have to believe me if I say that I am not deliberately conducting a campaign against Ealing Council. It’s just that the examples of their apparent incompetence are legion. The tragic consequence of this pointless bureaucratic incompetence is that it can, at best, waste our time, and at worst, it can seriously screw up peoples’ lives.

Take, for example the case of Louise who contacted this site some months ago when she received a visit from bailiffs demanding excessive amounts of money for two Ealing PCNs that she never received. The fact that she had moved home obviously figured in the equation.

Fortunately the system does have safeguards, and she filled an out of time Statutory Declaration in order to halt the bailiff enforcement action. In their wisdom, Ealing Council was unwilling to accept this Statutory Declaration, so (thankfully another safeguard) the matter had to be put before a County Court Judge to resolve the dispute.

Southall (Ealing) Box Junctions

In response to the numerous requests I have received for appeal documents I have decided to publish them here on the site. This information relates to South Road/St Joseph’s Drive, South Road/Cambridge Road and High Street/Avenue Road. There is a box junction at South Road/Hamilton Road but I have not heard of anyone getting a ticket there recently.

[28th Sept 2008 – The appeal documents have been updated to reflect recent wins at PATAS]

Please note that the appeal procedure is in two stages:

1. After you receive the PCN you fill in the reverse side and send it back (but remember to keep a copy). Tick the box that says something like “The contravention did not occur.” Then write the reasons as “This box junction is not as prescribed by the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002. Unless it has been authorised by the Secretary of State for Transport it is unenforceable.“

2. Ealing will most likely send you a Notice of Rejection stating lots of reasons why they think they are in the right. Ignore it – it is rubbish. Fill in the PATAS form as follows:

Boxes 1 & 2 : With your personal details.

Box 3 : It’s up to you whether you opt for a postal or personal hearing. A personal hearing shows you are serious.

Box 4 : Tick “The contravention alleged by the Authority on the PCN did not occur”.

Box 5 : Write “See attached documents”

Download one of the following MS Word documents and fill in your details on the first page. Print it off and send it with the appeal form to PATAS.

PATAS appeal for South Road/St Joseph’s Drive

PATAS appeal for South Road and Cambridge Road

PATAS appeal for High Street/Avenue Road

Any queries, please leave a message below.

Update 28th Sept 2008

These junctions are still unlawful. Note that it does not matter whether your vehicle was partly or wholly in the box you can still appeal. These boxes have no legal status. They are simply yellow graffiti on the public highway.

Media Frenzy

“To enrich people’s lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain.” (BBC mission statement originated by John Reith)

Apologies for the lack of posts to this blog over the last couple of months but my attention has been focussed elsewhere. The number of people seeking help rises by the week, and I am sorry if you have left a message and I have not responded. This issue is being addressed.

My colleagues and I have been occupied with making sure the Media are “on message” over the last few months. Their interest was awakened by the changeover in parking legislation from the Road Traffic Act 1991 to the Traffic Management Act 2004.

Back in January we had the BBC documentary “Road Rage” followed by the ITV offering “Parking Wars” in March.

More recently I was contacted by BBC Radio 4’s iPM team who wanted to do a piece on CCTV enforcement. I was able to take one of their reporters along to a meeting of the London Motorists’ Action Group to meet with (among others) Lord Lucas and Neil Herron. This went out on May 17^th.

I’m guessing that this must have sown the germ of an idea within the BBC News department, because shortly afterwards I was contacted by a researcher from the ‘Breakfast’ show who said that they wanted to do a piece on unlawful enforcement by Local Councils. I supplied her with lots of material, and I ended up dealing with queries at hourly intervals for most of yesterday.

The result was staggering. The message came across loud and clear in this morning’s programme: If councils want motorists to obey the law, they should themselves abide by the law. The story is summarised in this article Council motoring fines ‘illegal’ here on the BBC News website. As far as I know it was also picked up by Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live. When I switched on the radio in my car this evening it was the topic for the ‘Drivetime with Eddie and Kath’ phone-in programme on BBC Radio London.

That wasn’t the end of the story. Ealing Council (who else) rang up the Beeb to find out where they had got their figures from for the South Road & St Joseph’s Drive box junction. (An FOI request of course.)They also did not seem to know that there had been two rulings against this junction at PATAS (doh!). And how could the BBC possibly know that this junction had not received authorisation from the DfT? (Cos we talk to the DfT about these matters, which is more than Ealing does.)

So I was fielding more phone calls from the researcher.

But the best bit of news was that this item generated a TON of e-mail from viewers. It obviously touched a nerve with motorists and gave councils a real fright.

I leave you with this thought. The chances are that most PCNs are issued unlawfully. Do not assume that the PCN is correct – question it. You have been given a right of appeal – use it.

If everyone appealed, the system would grind to a halt. Wouldn’t that be nice…

Gobbledygook from Ealing Council

“A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.” (Herman Melville)

At base level, this just comes down to holistic asset time-phases. You really can’t really fail when you facilitate third-generation paradigm shifts. But, you might want to consider transitioning relational collaborative infrastructures as well.

We all know that the Notices of Rejection are produced by stitching together stock paragraphs on a word processor. Since some of Ealing Council’s yellow box junctions have been ruled unenforceable at PATAS they have had to come up with some new esoteric wording to justify their continued highway robbery activities.

Yellow Boxes at T Junctions

The last couple of months have seen a number of successful appeals against yellow boxes situated at ‘T’ junctions that span the full width of the road like this:

The correct configuration, as prescribed in diagram 1044 of the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002 is a half box, like so:

‘Tis the Season of Appeals

Well, the first anniversary of this website went unmarked on November 12^th. I was so busy preparing for the next few weeks that I didn’t have time for retrospection. That will have to wait for the Christmas break now.

The postal strike played havoc with applications for appeal and at one stage PATAS were receiving mail posted one month previously. Many people were served Charge Certificates by over eager councils because appeal applications were not received on time.

From my point of view it means that I have delayed appeals all stacked up between now and Christmas.

Significant Appeals

When I first started this blog I never really thought that I would join the ranks of the “real-time” bloggers, but so much is happening this week that I feel a need to document it as it unfolds.

Last month was a downer with all pending appeals cancelled, but this week I have two appeals that are definitely being contested. On Wednesday (8^th Aug) we are up against Transport for London (TfL) and on Friday (10^th Aug) we take on Islington.

The TfL appeal concerns the box junction at Battersea Bridge Road and Westbridge Road. This is being contested on four grounds:

1. The confusing and ambiguous wording of the PCN renders it invalid
2. The Wording of the Notice of Rejection does not conform to the legislation
3. The yellow box marking does not conform to the legislation
4. The contravention was unavoidable due to “unforeseen obstruction”.

TfL have not submitted anything to counter our arguments for points 1 and 2. They have strongly defended point 3, and would appear to be leaving the video evidence to speak for itself in support of point 4.

The Islington appeal concerns the box junction in Liverpool Road. That’s not really important because this is a test case to determine whether the wording of the Islington Moving Traffic PCN is lawful or not.

Experience has shown that previously, this kind of case would have ended up as a ‘no contest’. The fact that Islington Parking Dept has the courage to defend its actions does seem to confirm the commitment to put its house in order following the appointment of a Parking Advocate.

On top of this there are challenges taking shape against Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Waltham Forest.

Next instalment tomorrow…

Ruislip/Mansell Road, Ealing

It’s good to see that the residents of the Borough of Ealing are creating a fuss about the tax farming activities of Ealing Council, specifically the yellow box junction at Ruislip Road and Mansell Road. My spies tell me that enforcement has now ceased at this junction and the camera has been removed.

Now let’s see if we can get some of that money back that was extorted from unsuspecting motorists.