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10:24am Friday 21st December 2007
A DRIVER has won his battle against a parking fine in what campaigners claim is a landmark case.
Jim Keiller took Bolton Council to an appeal hearing, claiming the wording on the ticket issued to him contravened the rules.
He presented his evidence to the National Parking Adjudication Service (NPAS), which ruled in his favour.
Parking campaigners now say town hall chiefs should refund fines paid on 222,000 tickets issued between 2000, when the council took control of parking enforcement, and August, 2006, when the wording was changed to comply with regulations. This could amount to £6 million.
Mr Keiller, aged 61, had parked outside Bolton Library for 12 minutes when he was given a ticket by a warden because his wife June's blue disabled badge was covering a clock card on the windscreen showing the time he had parked the car.
He paid the fine after an initial appeal to Bolton Council was rejected.
But Mr Keiller then discovered the ticket contravened the rules because it showed only the date and time the ticket was issued and not the date and time the contravention occurred.
The council changed its tickets to include both times on August 23, last year, just eight days after Mr Keiller received his ticket.
Its move followed a High Court ruling on August 2 against Barnet Council, which had also been issuing tickets with only one of the two dates.
Mr Keiller was told by the Local Government Ombudsman that he could appeal to the National Parking Adjudication Service.
The council refunded his £30 to allow the appeal, but decided to fight it and doubled the fine because it had not been paid within 14 days.
Mr Keiller won his case, which cost the council £625 to fight, after being represented by Neil Herron, whose company, Parking Appeals Ltd, helps motorists to appeal against fines.
Mr Keiller said: "This was not about the money, but the principle. They showed by changing the format of their penalty charges to include the date of contravention that they knew they were illegal, but still pursued me for 15 months."
Mr Herron said the ruling had "far reaching implications" for anyone who paid a parking fine in Bolton before August 23, last year.
"The council must refund everyone unlawfully fined and ensure that they take every step to find the person who paid," he said.
A council spokesman said the authority did not agree with the decision, but said it would not be "proportionate" to seek a review. He said appeal adjudicator Stephen Knapp had ruled that the council had not acted "unreasonably" and should not therefore have to pay Mr Keiller's £700 costs.
The spokesman added: "The decision of Mr Knapp is by no means a landmark decision.
"The decision may be persuasive to other adjudicators dealing with similar issues, but it does not set a precedent.
"Bolton Council is under no obligation to volunteer refunds to motorists, but will carefully consider representations made by motorists seeking refunds on a case by case basis."
xipetotec46, bmoss@ntlworld.com says...
10:56am Fri 21 Dec 07
xipetotec46, bmoss@ntlworld.com says...
10:59am Fri 21 Dec 07
Pippin, pogles's wood says...
11:24am Fri 21 Dec 07
p-jay, says...
11:25am Fri 21 Dec 07
it won't affect the council tax
this could cost Bolton Council a lot more than they think
Bill1, Lancs says...
11:27am Fri 21 Dec 07
Marco wrote:The repayments cannot affect services or council tax. They are not allowed to.
What a hero. Using the parasitic Mr Heron to help him, this driver has employed weasly tactics to get himself off a fine that was strictly speaking deserved, and now the prospect of the council having to repay millions of pounds, which will come out of our services and cause more cutbacks as a result. Yes, what a hero.
Pippin, pogles's wood says...
11:50am Fri 21 Dec 07
The repayments cannot affect services or council tax. They are not allowed to.
Quite simply, that would mean that the parking fines had been used to raise revenue for the council (ie the money had gone into the council's coffers), and that is illegal.
Breightmetblogger, bolton says...
12:43pm Fri 21 Dec 07
xipetotec46 wrote:Hi Barry Bull.
Thought I would get in before Breightmetblagger and no it won't affect the council tax, and No I don't charge for advice, what this victory means blagger is that anyone who was issued with a Parking ticket from September 2000 up to and including 22nd August 2006 can now ask for their money back, because a penalty charge notice must have 2 dates and Bolton's tickets had only one date, the Council changed the tickets on 23rd August 2006 after being advised in a circular from the National Parking Adjudication Service regarding another court case to consider changing them, this was in early 2005, Bolton Council being a Rogue Council refused to take the advice and now they must suffer the consequences. email me for a template letter to make a claim for restitution plus interest plus damages from the council if the Bailiffs were involved, plus compensation if your goods and chattels were removed by the council, this could cost Bolton Council a lot more than they think because I know of two people who had to pay the bailiffs more than £800 each and more than 22,000 penalty charge notices went to Bailiffs bmoss@ntlworld.com
xipetotec46, bmoss@ntlworld.com says...
1:19pm Fri 21 Dec 07
xipetotec46, bmoss@ntlworld.com says...
1:29pm Fri 21 Dec 07
DJC, BL1 8UN says...
1:51pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Pippin, pogles's wood says...
2:00pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Pippin, pogles's wood says...
2:01pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Gloria, Bolton says...
2:17pm Fri 21 Dec 07
DJC, BL1 8UN says...
2:25pm Fri 21 Dec 07
chas, suffolk says...
2:58pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Gloria, Bolton says...
3:14pm Fri 21 Dec 07
DJC wrote:So you're telling me there is 6million just sitting round in a pot waiting to be refunded
Gloria, no you've not got it right dear.
Monies extorted from illegal Parking Fines do NOT affect Council Tax. The money is ring fenced. Which I'm sure some bright spark will provide a more in depth explanation of what this means.
I really dont understand why you lot are moaning. If you going to moan, complain to the inept Council who simply cant get it right! Not those who have been fined illegally...now, if the boot was on the other foot..how loud would you lot be then ?
Pippin, pogles's wood says...
3:17pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Monies extorted from illegal Parking Fines do NOT affect Council Tax. The money is ring fenced.
p-jay, says...
3:22pm Fri 21 Dec 07
The money is ring fenced.
OldBoltonian, says...
3:31pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Pippin, pogles's wood says...
3:48pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Gloria, Bolton says...
3:56pm Fri 21 Dec 07
donmarg, bolton says...
4:34pm Fri 21 Dec 07
donmarg, bolton says...
4:48pm Fri 21 Dec 07
RagReader, Horwich says...
4:48pm Fri 21 Dec 07
donmarg wrote:Parking ticket victory for driver
Go back to the old days when the BEN was used to wipe your rse on, All its fit for today anyway,
yonmons, Portsmouth says...
5:03pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Horwich Allstars, horwich says...
6:18pm Fri 21 Dec 07
xipetotec46, bmoss@ntlworld.com says...
7:09pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Jim Keiller, Bolton says...
7:51pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Horwich Allstars, Horwich says...
8:06pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Anti-PC, bury says...
8:06pm Fri 21 Dec 07
chas wrote:Agreed.
Make all parking free and the council will save a fortune.
Horwich Allstars, Horwich says...
8:07pm Fri 21 Dec 07
neil herron, Nationwide says...
8:09pm Fri 21 Dec 07
formula, Bournemouth says...
8:09pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Whos Daddy, f/w says...
8:10pm Fri 21 Dec 07
formula, Bournemouth says...
8:17pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Whos Daddy wrote:the same happend to me , i didnt relaise the badge was out of date ... and i actualy caught the traffic warden at my car issuing the ticket and i asked him what was up, and why was i getting the ticket , he pointed out it was out of date ,and also told me the badge had a 2wks grace after it ran out , so id apeal he said , yet still issued the ticket , i did apeal and i was sucessful ...
i was fined for using an out of date badge, i seriousli did not lknow it was outm of date nor did i getany reminder, can i appeal,anyone?
Horwich Allstars, Horwich says...
8:17pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Pippin, pogles's wood says...
9:23pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Jim Keiller, Bolton says...
9:40pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Jim Keiller, Bolton says...
9:58pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Jim Keiller, Bolton says...
10:30pm Fri 21 Dec 07
Pippin wrote:You are operating under a delusion Pippin, I too thought just as you do now until I discovered the real reason for a parking Scheme as it is now, to raise revenue by any means fair or not, just get the money in. The wardens (PA's) are operated by a profit motivated private company and have targets to meet, waken up to reality. It doesn't matter in Bolton whether you've got the badges and time clocks displayed, they slap tickets on anyway, I stopped one PA doing just that outside Whittakers as the bloke was pushing his wife, in a wheelchair into the 'van'. What are you on about ? cr4p driving, it's a bit of cardboard they slap a ticket on for, not bad driving, get your facts right at least. Does no-one actually read words any more ? The only 'person' who hired a lawyer was Bolton Council and they lost, so I wouldn't hire him.
At the end of the day the intention of the parking scheme is to penalise drivers who contravene fairly simple rules. The bays are clearly marked and obvious to all but the Barry Moss' of the world, Blue badges are easy to use for all but the Jim Keillers of the world. So a 't' isn't crossed or an 'i' not dotted on a ticket does that really excuse cr4p driving? Apparently so. Very sad. But still 'nil carborundum est' as my Latin teacher never said. I I'm off to rob an off-licence now. I'll be OK as I will hire the same lawyer as the parasites above and get away with it on a technicality...
melody shaw, bolton says...
11:22pm Fri 21 Dec 07
wayne, wycombe says...
12:38am today Sat 22 Dec 07
Marco wrote:Neil Herron a 'parasite'? This must be the Neil Herron who's friend died of a heart attack after being prosecuted by a Council for daring to sell bananas by the pound; If you want parasites then look at no further than those that Neil Herron has exposed for wasting millions of pounds of council tax and more importantly,will expose the many Councillors and Council 'officers' for the lying cheating self serving peasants that they really are.
What a hero. Using the parasitic Mr Heron to help him, this driver has employed weasly tactics to get himself off a fine that was strictly speaking deserved, and now the prospect of the council having to repay millions of pounds, which will come out of our services and cause more cutbacks as a result. Yes, what a hero.
Jim, Bolton, Lancashire says...
12:43am Sat 22 Dec 07
wayne, wycombe says...
12:50am Sat 22 Dec 07
Horwich Allstars wrote:Ah, another worried little Council worker. He charges because soon we will be taking Councils to the High Court; unfortunately Justice requires money, the Council has millions we don't yet we only need win a few cases.
Neil Herron (the man who helps people too stupid to park properly in the first place) calls someone else arrogant - you couldn't make it up. Get on his web-site, His biggest fan seems to be the Daily Mail -says is all. Also, he has a regular slot on Talk Sport (good grief..this being the station that charges people to ring in and talk on air...). It's not quite true that Mr Herron doesn't charge - in order to get the infomration to allow you to try and weasel out of a ticket, you need to pay a £9.99 a month subscription fee... so there is a charge really. BTW the web-site is worth going on for a good laugh, I'm not the best at spelling and grammer, but, if you are running a website, you would expect someone to proof read it!
wayne, wycombe says...
1:05am Sat 22 Dec 07
melody shaw wrote:People crushed by laws, have no hope but to evade power. If the laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to the law; and those who have must to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous.
This guy parked illegally! No matter what was printed or not printed the truth remains the same!Why do we expect to get away from the law! Park legally and you have no problem!
Horwich Allstars, Horwich says...
2:03pm Sat 22 Dec 07
wayne, wycombe says...
5:00pm Sat 22 Dec 07
Horwich Allstars wrote:"the people that are accusing the rest of us of making presumptions"
I don't work for the council & I'm not a man - and these off the people that are accusing the rest of us of making presumptions. Petty little men, with little else to do with thier lives - I actually feel a little sorry for people unable to display a piece of cardboard in thier car properly - they should get free parking & lessons in the display of cardboard parking permits. Why don't you all go to a UKIP rally, too boring for me round here anymore.
Horwich Allstars, Horwich says...
5:31pm Sat 22 Dec 07
wayne, wycombe says...
7:20pm Sat 22 Dec 07
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Marco, Bury says...
10:44am Fri 21 Dec 07