Bury St Edmunds resident calls for overhaul of ticketing process after winning multiple fine appeals
A Bury St Edmunds resident who received a spate of parking fines has called for an overhaul of the ticketing process after he had the majority of them rescinded.
Max Basford, of Bishops Road, spoke to SuffolkNews in October, detailing the five penalty charge notices (PCNs) he had received for adjudged incorrect parking in the space of two months.
Having gone through the entire appeals process, Mr Basford has now had four of the five fines rescinded by an independent adjudicator, despite an appeal by West Suffolk Council to dismiss the adjudicator’s rulings.
West Suffolk Council (WSC) said parking enforcement was a vital measure to aid congestion and emergency vehicles among other things and that anyone parked in a residential zone without a valid permit or one not being displayed properly would be issued with a PCN.
Mr Basford said the appeals process involved an initial informal appeal to the council, which was rejected. He then submitted a formal appeal – which was also rejected – before the case went to an independent adjudicator, when four of the fines were deemed unenforceable.
“The council had two opportunities to admit it was wrong with all five of my informal and formal appeals, it then had the same opportunity as I to submit its evidence against me to the independent adjudicators,” said Mr Basford.
“I feel there needs to be more of a thorough overhaul in the procedure in which issues these tickets – 80 per cent of the tickets I had were written off, so there’s probably a lot of others out there who are being victimised.”
Of the five fines, three were issued as Mr Basford’s permit had slipped slightly so the registration number could not be seen. Because of this, the independent adjudicator allowed the appeal, saying they were not satisfied the enforcement authority had established the particular contravention it alleged.
The reasoning given for these three fines was code 19, which states a person is liable for a fine for being ‘parked in a residents’ or shared-use parking place or zone displaying an invalid permit, an invalid voucher, or an invalid pay and display ticket’.
The other two fines were for parking in an area where it had been suspended for utilities work. One PCN stemming from this was deemed unjust as Mr Basford was not given adequate time to rectify it, while the original PCN stood.
A council spokesperson said parking enforcement helped emergency vehicles to pass through areas, reduce congestion and improve safety, with officers enforcing parking schemes to make sure they were only used by those authorised.
With regards Mr Basford’s case, the spokesperson said: “In this case of five penalty charge notices, two were given for parking in a suspended bay – the appeals process was used for this purpose.
“The independent adjudicator effectively said that as these two offences of parking in a suspended bay happened on consecutive days only one penalty charge was allowed to stand, covering the time period.
“In terms of the remaining three tickets, these were all for the resident failing to display his permit so it and the vehicle registration could be read – this is one of the legal requirements of the parking scheme that residents purchasing a parking permit sign up to and is necessary in order for us to enforce against people who shouldn’t be parked within the residential parking zone, such as using someone else’s permit.
“While these have been overturned on this occasion when others considered by the independent adjudicator have been consistently upheld, anyone parked in a residential parking zone either without a valid permit or not displaying it in a way where it can be fully validated, will be issued with a penalty charge notice.”
