"Council Should repay victims of
parking bay" - Ealing Gazette
Ealing Council change all illegally
marked bays!
In an amazing u-turn following the
story below,
Ealing Council have quietly changed all the residents parking bays
in the borough to make them legal - an admission they were wrong all
along. Figures obtained from a freedom of information request by
ticketfighter show that Ealing have issued 123,000 tickets in
residents bays and generated over £4m in revenue over the last 5
years, an extraordinary amount!
If
you've received a ticket in one of these illegal bays and paid,
contact Ealing to try and claim a refund.
Before....
After. Local campaigner Nazma Begum poses with the 'blacked out'
lines
March 09
Ealing Issue 30
tickets in illegally marked bay - after they lose appeal.
In yet another display of arrogance and criminal behaviour, an FOI request
has revealed that Ealing Council has issued another 30 tickets since they
admitted the markings were wrong in the same bay that they were shamed over
in the Ealing Times (below). 27 of these have been paid.
As revealed in the
Ealing Times, Ticketfighter has helped a motorist to reveal illegally
marked bays in the London Borough of Ealing. Nazma Begum had two appeals
rejected by the council and took the case to the independent parking
adjudicator. One day before the hearing, Ealing pulled out of the case, an
admission that they knew all along they were in the wrong. However it is not
just this bay which is wrongly marked, but almost every similar bay in the
borough. Double white lines at the end of the bays instead of single lines
(as detailed on ticketfighter
here)
make them illegal.
Now despite admitting a 'technical fault' in this bay, the council seem to
think they are above the law are refusing to change all the other wrongly
marked bays. In a bizarre
statement to the Ealing times a spokesman said:
"Ealing's controlled parking zones are
clearly marked and we will
continue to enforce them. The Council has no intention of spending
taxpayers' money on re-drawing zone lines when the present bays are
entirely clear. The possible changes being called for by the Ealing
Times would significantly reduce parking capacity across the borough.
Bearing in mind the huge demand for parking in this borough this does
not strike us as entirely sensible."
What on earth
are they talking about!? This whole saga brings into question their
competence in operating decriminalised parking enforcement. The council has
already been left red faced with regards to their
yellow boxes. It's bad enough
that they can't follow the regulations in the first place when designing
their bays. But if they had any sense or decency, they would put their hands
up, admit their mistake, offer refunds and fix the problem. But no they seem
to think they can ride roughshod over the law of this land and continue to
fleece motorists. A combination of arrogance, incompetence and what now
appears to be deception bordering on fraud. The technical term for this is
malfeasance, the abuse of public power in office. They're playing a very
dangerous game and opening up themselves to a possible legal challenge.
Watch this space for further developments....
Ealing's Illegal Yellow Boxes
In April 10 Ealing were
caught out again, this time the yellow box at the junction of Otter Road /
Greenford Rd was deemed illegal by the adjudicator. If
you received a ticket here they are offering refunds but only for the
following circumstances:
1. The
contravention occurred at the location for code 31j
2. The date of contravention is on or before the 30/04/2010.
3. The date of payment received by Ealing is on or
after the 30/04/2010.
Unfair' parking fines system should be
overhauled -The
parking fines system should be overhauled to stop councils
benefiting financially and forcing motorists to pay often trivial
fines, a coalition of campaigners has said. More information
here. Feb 10
'Periscope'
parking fines quashed -
Parking
appeals service deems that councils enforcing by CCTV require
warning signs. This could affect millions of people!More info
here. Aug 09
Fake yellow line in Muswell Hill -
Haringey council refuses to pay back fines issued on a fake yellow
line after admitting they were in the wrong. Some may call it theft.
Nov 07
Illegal Bolton street parking probe - Parking bosses in Bolton
still enforcing illegal signs and roadmarkings could be guilty of
the offence
of "misfeasance" - a common law offence involving wilful misconduct
by a public officer dating back to 1703. Oct 07
Parking sign blunder could cost authority
millions -
Aberdeen
council gets a controlled zone sign wrong and loses an appeal. The
council doesn't seem too happy at getting a taste of their own
medicine and having to follow the law themselves! Sept
07
Lawless Bolton Council
-
Barry Moss successfully targets illegal parking signs in Bolton.
Illegal because they are missing one word (video below) July 07
