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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/06/parking-ticket-challenge-traffic-penalty-tribunal-appeals-bus-lane
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| Got your parking ticket? Here's how to challenge it | Got your parking ticket? Here's how to challenge it |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| The Eton Room of the Quality Inn, Reading, isn't as posh as it sounds. But this dreary function room, with a couple of pushed-together desks, a scattering of chairs, a carpet that could easily give you nightmares, and a view of parked cars, is home today to a sort of justice. Parking justice. | The Eton Room of the Quality Inn, Reading, isn't as posh as it sounds. But this dreary function room, with a couple of pushed-together desks, a scattering of chairs, a carpet that could easily give you nightmares, and a view of parked cars, is home today to a sort of justice. Parking justice. |
| Kevin Little, fishmonger (he runs the Smelly Alley Fish Company in the city centre and is wearing a blue coat, boater and wellies), is explaining what he, and his van, were doing stopping in a bus lane at 6.10am on 21 September last year. He was driving in to work, he says, when he noticed something at the side of the road and pulled over. It turned out to be a drunk man with a pack on his back who had fallen off his bicycle and was lying in the road, kicking his feet in the air "like a Ninja Turtle". Little pulled the man up, asked him if he needed further assistance or a lift (the man said he didn't), then went on his way. | Kevin Little, fishmonger (he runs the Smelly Alley Fish Company in the city centre and is wearing a blue coat, boater and wellies), is explaining what he, and his van, were doing stopping in a bus lane at 6.10am on 21 September last year. He was driving in to work, he says, when he noticed something at the side of the road and pulled over. It turned out to be a drunk man with a pack on his back who had fallen off his bicycle and was lying in the road, kicking his feet in the air "like a Ninja Turtle". Little pulled the man up, asked him if he needed further assistance or a lift (the man said he didn't), then went on his way. |
| Little's reward for this public spirited act? A penalty charge notice of £60 from Reading borough council, for stopping in the bus lane. The council representative says there's no evidence that the cyclist ever existed (an appeal by the local paper for him to come forward has so far gone unanswered). There is CCTV footage – now transferred to iPad – of the van clearly in the bus lane, then leaving it. Little says you can see the bicycle still in the road, the council representative says it's road markings. Little says you can just make out the turtle cyclist's head behind the bus stop, the council representative says she can't. Annie Hockaday must decide. | Little's reward for this public spirited act? A penalty charge notice of £60 from Reading borough council, for stopping in the bus lane. The council representative says there's no evidence that the cyclist ever existed (an appeal by the local paper for him to come forward has so far gone unanswered). There is CCTV footage – now transferred to iPad – of the van clearly in the bus lane, then leaving it. Little says you can see the bicycle still in the road, the council representative says it's road markings. Little says you can just make out the turtle cyclist's head behind the bus stop, the council representative says she can't. Annie Hockaday must decide. |
| Who's Annie Hockaday? A lawyer and adjudicator of the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, which is what this is. A judicial body, independent of the council (though financed by them), the tribunal is the final stage in the appeals process against parking tickets and bus-lane misdemeanours. You get your ticket, you challenge it, the council rejects your challenge (invariably, I find). So you take it to the tribunal – either over the phone, or in person, possibly to the Eton Room of the Quality Inn in Reading. | Who's Annie Hockaday? A lawyer and adjudicator of the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, which is what this is. A judicial body, independent of the council (though financed by them), the tribunal is the final stage in the appeals process against parking tickets and bus-lane misdemeanours. You get your ticket, you challenge it, the council rejects your challenge (invariably, I find). So you take it to the tribunal – either over the phone, or in person, possibly to the Eton Room of the Quality Inn in Reading. |
| You never knew? Many don't. It means reading the (very) small print. Caroline Sheppard hopes the tribunal featuring in the current BBC1 documentary series Parking Mad will mean more people know about it … Hang on, who's Caroline Sheppard? Only the chief adjudicator; she's like the lord chief justice of parking and bus lanes, and she's also present today, taking a couple of cases. | You never knew? Many don't. It means reading the (very) small print. Caroline Sheppard hopes the tribunal featuring in the current BBC1 documentary series Parking Mad will mean more people know about it … Hang on, who's Caroline Sheppard? Only the chief adjudicator; she's like the lord chief justice of parking and bus lanes, and she's also present today, taking a couple of cases. |
| I came up on the train with her; she told me about setting up the tribunal, how it works, that "there's much more law in parking than you can ever possibly imagine", and what it is about cars and parking them that so gets the nation's collective goat. Not only do people believe they are entitled to park outside their own houses, but they see their car almost as part of themselves, and slapping a ticket on it is "almost assault" she says. | I came up on the train with her; she told me about setting up the tribunal, how it works, that "there's much more law in parking than you can ever possibly imagine", and what it is about cars and parking them that so gets the nation's collective goat. Not only do people believe they are entitled to park outside their own houses, but they see their car almost as part of themselves, and slapping a ticket on it is "almost assault" she says. |
| She's good-humoured and a bit headmistressy. "If you behave badly I might have to exclude you," she told me, sternly. | She's good-humoured and a bit headmistressy. "If you behave badly I might have to exclude you," she told me, sternly. |
| From Reading station we took a taxi to the Quality Inn. "You're allowed in the bus lanes aren't you?" she said to the driver. "I'd like a nice tour of the bus lanes please." And so we meandered to the Quality Inn, while Sheppard brushed up on Reading's bus lanes and signage. It's certainly complicated – there are "bus gates", and bus lanes that are only bus lanes for 75 minutes in the morning, then they stop being bus lanes … no wonder people get caught out. | From Reading station we took a taxi to the Quality Inn. "You're allowed in the bus lanes aren't you?" she said to the driver. "I'd like a nice tour of the bus lanes please." And so we meandered to the Quality Inn, while Sheppard brushed up on Reading's bus lanes and signage. It's certainly complicated – there are "bus gates", and bus lanes that are only bus lanes for 75 minutes in the morning, then they stop being bus lanes … no wonder people get caught out. |
| What about fishy Kevin Little then, good samaritan or fantasy monger? The former, decides the tribunal, and allows his appeal. "I find it to be a very credible account that Little has seen someone lying in the road, I am entirely satisfied that he stopped in order to help an accident, or to prevent a further accident," says Hockaday, pointing out that the CCTV footage begins after the incident. She also indicates that there is no other traffic around at 6.10am in the footage: why else would Little need to be in the bus lane? Justice for him, then. | What about fishy Kevin Little then, good samaritan or fantasy monger? The former, decides the tribunal, and allows his appeal. "I find it to be a very credible account that Little has seen someone lying in the road, I am entirely satisfied that he stopped in order to help an accident, or to prevent a further accident," says Hockaday, pointing out that the CCTV footage begins after the incident. She also indicates that there is no other traffic around at 6.10am in the footage: why else would Little need to be in the bus lane? Justice for him, then. |
| And for Lance Mordant, whose pay-and-display ticket fell off the dashboard in Slough (there's no sticky bit on Slough tickets, almost as if they're hoping they'll fall off, he says). I'm learning a lot about the business of parking today – that sticky pay-and-display tickets aren't just more expensive, they can also stick up the machine, especially in hot weather; salt brings problems, and stickiness, to seaside machines; and cold weather causes coins to drop straight through … enough? | |
| Anyway, in this case it doesn't matter because the council got the street wrong in the penalty charge notice, so Mordant gets off on a technicality. As does Syed Bukhari, a taxi driver who left his taxi in the taxi rank, and went off to do his shopping. Not allowed, but the council doesn't have the correct proof that the taxi rank is in fact a taxi rank, so Bukhari, too, wins his appeal, against the odds I'd say. Taxi law, often ancient, is very complicated, I'm told. Sheppard was right, there is a hell of a lot of law in parking. | Anyway, in this case it doesn't matter because the council got the street wrong in the penalty charge notice, so Mordant gets off on a technicality. As does Syed Bukhari, a taxi driver who left his taxi in the taxi rank, and went off to do his shopping. Not allowed, but the council doesn't have the correct proof that the taxi rank is in fact a taxi rank, so Bukhari, too, wins his appeal, against the odds I'd say. Taxi law, often ancient, is very complicated, I'm told. Sheppard was right, there is a hell of a lot of law in parking. |
| Back to bus lanes then (yay!), and Derek Mukhtar has also been CCTV snapped in one, but the tribunal agrees with him that the signs are not clearly visible enough. This is turning out to be a bad day for Reading borough council and their signs. Lynda Stokes, a serial bus-lane encroacher, has brought someone along to help. That's Lieutenant Kenneth Guest, commanding officer at the Salvation Army Reading West Corps. No stranger to the tribunal after successfully appealing 11 tickets himself, he now helps other motorists with theirs (Reading is full of community spirit, it seems). Guest has personally measured the font size of the city's controversial bus lane signs, found them to be lacking (he knows the regulations inside out); he has videoed notorious hot spots, made numerous freedom of information requests, has a big fat purple file out of which he pulls page after page of evidence. Does he get Stokes off her ticket? Of course he does. | Back to bus lanes then (yay!), and Derek Mukhtar has also been CCTV snapped in one, but the tribunal agrees with him that the signs are not clearly visible enough. This is turning out to be a bad day for Reading borough council and their signs. Lynda Stokes, a serial bus-lane encroacher, has brought someone along to help. That's Lieutenant Kenneth Guest, commanding officer at the Salvation Army Reading West Corps. No stranger to the tribunal after successfully appealing 11 tickets himself, he now helps other motorists with theirs (Reading is full of community spirit, it seems). Guest has personally measured the font size of the city's controversial bus lane signs, found them to be lacking (he knows the regulations inside out); he has videoed notorious hot spots, made numerous freedom of information requests, has a big fat purple file out of which he pulls page after page of evidence. Does he get Stokes off her ticket? Of course he does. |
| In fact all eight appeals today are granted. Not typical, the adjudicators are keen to point out – on average it works out at about 50:50. The problem with appealing to the tribunal is that it takes a bit of time so you lose the opportunity to only pay half by coughing up within two weeks. That's the single biggest barrier to the tribunal, says Sheppard. | In fact all eight appeals today are granted. Not typical, the adjudicators are keen to point out – on average it works out at about 50:50. The problem with appealing to the tribunal is that it takes a bit of time so you lose the opportunity to only pay half by coughing up within two weeks. That's the single biggest barrier to the tribunal, says Sheppard. |
| So when should you appeal? "If you genuinely feel a ticket is wrong, you should appeal," she says. Imagine, for example, you had to break the rules to rescue a drunken Ninja Turtle cyclist from the road. Cowabunga dudes! | So when should you appeal? "If you genuinely feel a ticket is wrong, you should appeal," she says. Imagine, for example, you had to break the rules to rescue a drunken Ninja Turtle cyclist from the road. Cowabunga dudes! |
| For more information go to trafficpenaltytribunal.gov.uk. | For more information go to trafficpenaltytribunal.gov.uk. |
| Parking Mad concludes at 9pm on 8 May on BBC1. | Parking Mad concludes at 9pm on 8 May on BBC1. |