Northampton County Court - unpaid penalty charge

taffster_2

Hi all

Please can you help me with this as my brain is officially fried!

I have been fighting a parking ticket since I received a PCN back in September from Bath & NE Somerset Council and to cut a long story short I received a letter yesterday from the Traffic Enforcement Centre at Northampton County Court which is addressed to the applicant (Council) stating,

"The respondent filed a statutory declaration/ witness statement on 14 Feb. It is ordered that the order for recovery of unpaid penalty charge be revoked. It is further ordered that the charge certificate be cancelled.

Important note to respondent (me):

This order does NOT cancel the original PCN. The Local Authority may well take further action on it. The LA should inform you as soon as possible if it intends to do so."

The bottom of the letter says. " TE5B Notification that a statutory declaration / witness statement has been filed - unpaid penalty charge (CPR Part 75)".

Can someone tell me what this means in English please as I have looked it up and I'm getting all sorts of conflicting information. What is my position, do I need to do anything and what will happen from here????

Your help is appreciated!

Orford

Your statutory declaration has been allowed and it is now up to the council to re-issue the NTO, at which point you have the choice of either paying the original PCN (non-discounted) or making formal representation to the NTO and subsequently to the ajudicator

HO87

In straightforward English it means that the Penalty Charge Notice procedure has been reset. It means that BANES can restart the process - if they so wish.

Presumably you have sworn a Statutory Declaration to the effect that a Notice to Owner (or whatever) had not been properly served or at all (or some other aspect of the procedure has been missed)?

taffster_2

Thank you for the rapid response!

I completed a Notice of Appeal following their rejection and didn't hear anything further. Then I received another document a couple of weeks ago (not sure what it's called) and I ticked the applicable box which stated that I had returned the NoA within the 28 days and had not received a response.

Then this court letter turned up yesterday and I feel like I've blinked and missed something!

So I just sit tight and wait for the council to get in touch with me again?

give_them_FA

If you file the Statutory Declaration within the time allowed it MUST be accepted. The ball is now in the Council's court. You will have to await their next response. They could decide not to proceed, but in my experience the lure of the money is too strong and they will come back at you. Post again if you need any help when they do.

taffster_2

Thanks all

taffster_2

Hi, as predicted the council are still pursuing me and I have received a letter from the Adjudicator asking me to provide my evidence and confirm if I will attend a hearing in person, over the phone or let my documents / evidence do the talking.

Unfortunately I am so behind with this due to other things and wonder if it's worth paying it to avoid the hassle or do I fight on and go to a hearing? My situation is this - I reported the broken parking machine that had coins in it via phone and both rejection letters from the council confirm that there were no issues with the machine that day and that I should have parked elsewhere. We did not know of anywhere else to park, were not from the area, we parked in the place that involved less walking for me following a recent operation and we saw that plenty of other vehicles were parked there and thought that there would be no problems - doh!

My ex-partner's mobile company confirm the number, date and time that we made the call to report the but he is yet to receive a copy of the bill as evidence as I doubt I will get it in time.

Please can someone advise me what to do asap? Thank you!

give_them_FA

Yes- liaise with the Appeals Office and tell them you will not be available for a hearing before xx date to give you the chance to get the evidence together.

Coupon-mad

taffster wrote: »

Hi, as predicted the council are still pursuing me and I have received a letter from the Adjudicator asking me to provide my evidence and confirm if I will attend a hearing in person, over the phone or let my documents / evidence do the talking.

Unfortunately I am so behind with this due to other things and wonder if it's worth paying it to avoid the hassle or do I fight on and go to a hearing? My situation is this - I reported the broken parking machine that had coins in it via phone and both rejection letters from the council confirm that there were no issues with the machine that day and that I should have parked elsewhere. We did not know of anywhere else to park, were not from the area, we parked in the place that involved less walking for me following a recent operation and we saw that plenty of other vehicles were parked there and thought that there would be no problems - doh!

My ex-partner's mobile company confirm the number, date and time that we made the call to report the but he is yet to receive a copy of the bill as evidence as I doubt I will get it in time.

Please can someone advise me what to do asap? Thank you!

Or just copy & paste your previous appeal wording into an appeal for the adjudicator (assume he has read nothing of your previous appeal).

If you cannot spare any time for an appeal in person then go for a telephone appeal as your second choice as that is fairly easy and still gives you the chance to talk to an independent person and put your side and clarify anything that's not clear from your paperwork.

Third choice would be a postal appeal as often paper documents can be misconstrued, the appellant cannot present themselves as a genuine nice person(!) and the most salient points can easily be overlooked. Unless you are there in person, or on the phone, how can you steer him/her around to picturing you as an honest and reliable witness whose account is genuine, about a blocked/broken machine?

There is absolutely no point whatsoever in paying the full penalty now you have got - almost - to adjudication stage. He/she will decide whether you have to pay all or nothing and there are no costs or anything so it would seem silly to throw in the towel.

Especially as a lot of Councils don't defend, when push comes to shove...

give_them_FA

Yes, 9 times out of 10 the Council can't be bothered to turn up, meaning the Adjudicator will pretty certainly accept your evidence.

taffster_2

I am going to push on and take a telephone appeal and have been granted an extension by the adjudicator so thanks for the nudge, I was just so fed up of it.

Anyway, quite interestingly the council's defense has turned up which shows reems and reems of useless inspections for the area showing that there was no fault with the parking machine in question. There is even a nice little copy of a test token from the machine before the guy issued me with a ticket.

While I have never denied parking there, my arguement has been that there was no working facility to pay. The council have confirmed their flat denial in this paperwork however I now have a copy of the mobile bill clearly showing the number that we called to report it. Furthermore, I rang it back yesterday to check the logs that were made that day. The woman I spoke to said that she had no record of any issues with this machine for that day or indeed for 3 weeks after. She also said that they attend the machines at 6am every morning so the likelihood was that it was looked at the following day and again no problems were noted down.

The council will probably still argue that I should have sort somewhere else to park but mine is that they should have a proper inspection and maintenance system in place (something that they are portraying they have but clearly do not!).

We will soon see next week but what's the gut feeling on how this one will go? I feel that I am in a better position now I have the above info.