Council now muzzling it's councillors

I have spoken with my local councillors about this, one is sympathetic, the other claims they must be neutral. I fail to see why.
But the worst thing is that I have just heard that the Council's legal eagles have now told them not to get involved.
WHAT ? Since  when can a council shut up it's councillors, least of all over what is a minor, and very local issue.

How much do they make from Parking Fines

You can see the Portsmouth Penalty Charge Notice Statistics online
I did a few calculations
In 2011 they made £1,184,884, yep well over a million quid a year! 
I guess that pays for quite a few Parking Charge Assistants
Pity they don't spend  bit on training them as to what are reasonable grounds for granting an Appeal - actually at this point it is called an Informal Challenge

The Parking Penalty Enforcement Process.

Soon after I emailed the Council parking department I received an email saying that my appeal was rejected. This came from a "Parking Charge Assistant"
Attached to the Email was a file - C0946897 DOC.docx
Now, as it happens I can read docx files, but not everyone can. They should use pdf files and I have advised them of this.
It said

Thank you for your letter recently received. 

On receipt of a Penalty Charge Notice the driver of the vehicle is given a fourteen day period to either pay the reduced rate of the Charge or make an informal appeal, as you have already done with your initial letter.  The appeal is then considered, taking into account all the available information in relation to the contravention and a decision is made.

In this instance, a non-cancellation letter was sent to you on 16 October 2012 in which you were advised that you were able to pay the reduced charge within 14 days of receiving the correspondence or await the Notice to Owner form and make a second appeal.  The Notice to Owner will be sent after the Parking Office has received confirmation of the registered keeper of the vehicle from the DVLA and will be issued after a twenty-eight day period from the issue of the Penalty Charge Notice.

The Notice to Owner form allows you to make a formal appeal, which is then reviewed by another member of the Parking Office staff.  If the appeal is accepted the Penalty Charge Notice will be cancelled and a letter sent to the keeper of the vehicle.  If the appeal is rejected a Notice of Rejection will be sent.  A Notice of Appeal form will be included with this letter in order for you to make an appeal to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, who are independent adjudicators.  The adjudicator has the final decision on the case. 

 As such, I have noted your comments but am unable to take them into consideration at this time and have added your letter to the case file.

Yours sincerely

I immediately replied

"There really is no need for any DVLA checks as the facts are not in question

Why waste money on a futile exercise?"

 

Now, quite why they need to send a notice to the owner of the Loan car I have no idea (it's the RULE) since they know that the owner was not using the car as I was.
But investigating this it seems to be required by the The Parking Penalty Enforcement Process.
Here it is, a copy came with each of the two penalty rejections

I suggest that since it involves the DVLA and the prvious owner when there is no reason to it is actually unfit for purpose.
Or maybe Portsmouth Parking department are wrong to rely on it.

How I got two penalties and met the Jobsworths

Now, back in August, my car (which I had only had for 6 weeks) blew it's cam shaft. That is another story, however while it was being repaired I was provided with a Loan car.

So I parked the loan car outside my house with a note explaining this clearly visible in the car along with my existing parking permit. The note even gave my house number so if there was a problem the parking person could let me know.

This was on the 25 of August and no penalty charge notices were placed on the car.

But then on Sunday the 2nd and Monday the 3rd of September two penalty notices were placed on the windscreen. I had not looked and I don't drive every day - I use my bike for short trips, so had not noticed the first one.

So I wrote an appeal, which I delivered by hand to the Parking office on September the 8th

It said

My Car Reg  ***** is sick

It is being repaired, and so I have a car, Reg **** on loan from the garage where I bought it and where it is being repaired.

You can check this by phoning *** Car Sales

(I included their phone number)

I have had a note to this effect clearly visible in the car along with my existing parking permit. This has been the case since the 25 of August and no penalty charge notices were placed on the car except on Sunday the 2^nd and Monday the 3^rd of September

I am appealing against these two penalties

All went quiet, after a month I assumed that they had decided not to pursue the fines

Then, 5 weeks after I delivered my appeal I received a rejection!

I then Emailed the Parking department as follows

I am appealing again against these two penalties

I was astonished to receive two identical letters rejecting my appeal against the penalty for parking a loan car that I had when my car as being repaired. As I had mentioned my permit was displayed along with a note explaining the situation.

It strikes me as utterly unfair and as a Council tax payer I do not expect the staff of my council to be so unreasonable.

Do you have no discretion? Evidently the parking enforcement officer who did not put penalty notices on my loan car on the many other days it was there did use discretion sensibly.

You also state

Whilst I note that you had left a note I should advise you that Civil Enforcement Officers are not able to pay any attention to notes left in vehicles as to do so would allow all vehicles displaying notes to park without charge or penalty.

I understand the point but you fail to mention that I was also displaying my actual Permit, not just a note so this statement is wrong. I also provided you with information by which you could confirm that my car was off the road.

I have in the last 6 years already paid The Parking Office 283.25 for parking mostly for visitor permits and once to change my permit as I had changed cars.

I do not object to this, but to fine me for parking a loan car is not acceptable.

You state that I should have got a temporary permit, but I did not know how long my car would take to get repaired. And why should I pay for that when I had a valid permit for my car, if not the loan car.

I also note that it took over 5 weeks to reject my appeal.

So please apply some discretion and waive the fines

Please reply by email, this will save costs.

Unreasonable parking fines in Southsea - start here

This blog is for following up what happens when you appeal against unreasonable parking fines in Southsea.
First some background
Many years ago there was vote in my local area (PO53DR) to decide if we residents wanted a Parking Permit system.

The reason we were given was that this would mean that as residents we would be less likely to find the parking spaces all occupied by non residents. And we were told that it's purpose was not to extract more money from residents - our permits would be free, one per household.

Of course there was a catch, we would have to purchase permits for any guests or tradesmen that needed to park nearby for more than two hours. In fact in the last 6  years I have paid over £260 for such permits

See the PortsmouthParking web for more details