Forgotten Blue Badge PCN

Fruitcake

Whilst the site entrance sign does not mention the NHS, the pharmacy at the Lister Centre has a dirty great NHS logo on the front, implying that the site is affiliated with the NHS, therefore one would expect the NHS parking principles to apply.

Coupon-mad

Even if not, the Equality Act 2010 does.

mechpet

Amended facts, is this ok? 

The facts as known to the Defendant:

2. It is admitted that the defendant was the registered keeper and driver of the vehicle in question

3. On 14/12/2021 the defendant attended the Lister Health Centre in Harlow for a scheduled medical appointment. The defendant is 77 years old and has mobility issues and uses 2 crutches to assist with walking and to support poor balance. A disabled parking bay became available, and the defendant parked using the space in order to be closer to the entrance. The defendant has a legal right to use the available reasonable adjustment as a person with a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, which an alleged contract about paying £100 if not displaying a piece of card (which is in fact merely one indicator of disability needs and applies only to Local Authority parking) cannot overrule. Disabled persons are protected from unfair policies and must not be harassed or marginalised.  The defendant possesses a blue badge, but did on this occasion forget to display the badge. The age of the defendant and the stress of attending an appointment is a valid reason for forgetfulness. 

4. The defendant has used the claimant’s appeal process and at the earliest opportunity made the claimant fully aware of the defendant’s disability and this has been acknowledged by the claimant in a letter dated 18/01/2022. As soon as the Claimant knew about the Blue Badge, they should have simply cancelled the charge, as the Government's new incoming statutory Code of Practice (which mentions and draws from the Equality Act) will specifically mandate in the Appeals Charter. The Code will not be retrospective but this clause is nothing new.  It is simply stating the law and quashing unfair practices from a rogue industry.

5. The defendants case draws close parallels with Excel v Greenwood - Case number 3QT60496(4/10/2013), where a judge stated that the parking firm had an obligation to make reasonable adjustments to remove barriers to disabled persons and that included the duty to cancel the charge as soon as they knew that Mr Greenwood was disabled and merely forgot to display his badge, but had it appended to his appeal.

6. It is believed that this Claimant's sister company (Excel) planned to appeal the Greenwood case and as such, the owner of VCS/Excel (Simon Renshaw-Smith, known in the press and public domain as the notorious 'Captain Clampit') will be aware of the case and that his companies hold a copy of the transcript they obtained for Excel v Greenwood. There is no reasonable cause of action for a case of duplicate facts to be heard nearly a decade later, expecting a different result.

 7. If the Claimant disagrees and contends that the facts are somehow different, the Defendant requires that the Claimant exhibit the full and/or approved judgment transcript for Excel v Greenwood, because that case has only been publicly reported anecdotally and in the press. Although not persuasive, Greenwood involved the same Claimant trying to argue the same points, and it would assist the court to be able to read through the 2013 case papers which must be exhibited by the Claimant, which would meet the Overriding Objective and support the interests of open dealing and justice.

8. The defendant made a complaint to the landowners Harlow Health Centres Trust Ltd, and that Excel Parking Services Ltd (company number 02878122) answered the complaint, when the parking company at the site is VCS Ltd (company number 02498820). 

Rest of the template renumbered after this

Fruitcake

I'm not quite sure what this means,

"... but had it appended to his appeal."

Do you mean a copy of the BB was supplied to the PPC with the initial appeal? If so, it might be worth mentioning this in para 4 instead where you mention that a letter was sent to the claimant stating the defendant had a BB.

Trainerman

Para 4 too many "made". I would remove the one before "fully aware" so that it becomes "made the claimant fully aware"

mechpet

Fruitcake said:

I'm not quite sure what this means,

"... but had it appended to his appeal."

Do you mean a copy of the BB was supplied to the PPC with the initial appeal? If so, it might be worth mentioning this in para 4 instead where you mention that a letter was sent to the claimant stating the defendant had a BB.

Thank you, Does this read better? 
4. The defendant has used the claimant’s appeal process and at the earliest opportunity made the claimant fully aware of the defendant’s disability by providing a copy of a valid blue badge and this has been acknowledged by the claimant in a letter dated 18/01/2022 which was sent to the defendant. As soon as the Claimant knew about the Blue Badge, they should have simply cancelled the charge, as the Government's new incoming statutory Code of Practice (which mentions and draws from the Equality Act) will specifically mandate in the Appeals Charter. The Code will not be retrospective but this clause is nothing new.  It is simply stating the law and quashing unfair practices from a rogue industry.

Coupon-mad

Yep, it all looks fine.

Fruitcake

As long as you have removed,

"... but had it appended to his appeal" from the end of para 5, it looks fine.

mechpet

Trainerman said:

Para 4 too many "made". I would remove the one before "fully aware" so that it becomes "made the claimant fully aware"

Thank you for this 

Coupon-mad said:

Yep, it all looks fine.

Thank you  for checking

Fruitcake said:

As long as you have removed,

"... but had it appended to his appeal" from the end of para 5, it looks fine.

Hi, yes I have taken this out of my template

Thank you for the advice/edits everyone.

I will look to get this emailed in to the court as per the guide and not through the website.

mechpet

Hi, 

So the defence is in and I have the email acknowledgement.