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Letter to Leeds City Council Parking Services

Towards the end of November 2012 I received a Penalty Charge Notice for a "Bus Lane Contravention" (driving/ parking my vehicle in said Bus Lane) captured on camera earlier that same month.

I had no recollection of parking or driving in any Bus Lane and certainly not the one stated in the Penalty Charge Notice, which was situated in Leeds city centre.
That's more than 200 miles away from where I live and the driveway where my car was (legally) parked during the alleged contravention.

It was a classic case of Council incompetence and failure by a Council employee or Council department – who are there to serve the public – to do a job properly.

Worse still, the Notice was threatening, accusatory, demanded payment of the fine within 28 days or an increased fine would be involved.
For a parking contravention I didn’t commit or was within 200 miles of.

Cue the red mist descending…



F.A.O. Appeals Team, Parking Services, Leeds City Council

Dear Sirs,

Alleged Bus Lane Contravention on Thursday 22nd November 2012 at 7am 
Location: Vicar Lane (Kirkgate Junction). Reference Number: **********)


I am in receipt of your Penalty Charge Notice and accompanying Case Evidence Report in respect of above, with the alleged contravention directed towards vehicle with registration **** ***.

While I fully acknowledge the vehicle I currently own carries this registration this is not the vehicle involved in the offence and not the vehicle in your Case Evidence photographs.

Receiving the Penalty Charge Notice was confusing and upsetting enough but on looking at the photographs I am at an absolute loss to explain how the vehicle has been identified as having the registration just stated.

While six of the seven letters/ numbers would seem to be the same 
– and in sequence – one other (the second letter) has not been identified correctly.

The second letter is not a D and is almost certainly a B.


In fact the second letter carries a horizontal bar or central delineation of some sort; it is therefore an R, H or A.

This should be the end of the matter but having made a call to the Parking Services on the 30th of November, I was informed this was not enough and I had to, as stipulated on the rear of your Penalty Charge Notice "make representation and provide evidence" of the car (type) associated with the registration.

I find this Guilty Until Proven Innocent policy quite discomforting and the format of your Penalty Charge notices (assuming the one I received follows the form of all such notices) is presented in quite an accusatory tone.

Carrying phrases such as "The penalty charge... is now payable" and "must be paid no later than" immediately place the recipient in an unsettling position and is at odds with the "alleged" terminology used elsewhere on the form.
It is highly unfair to make someone feel that they are in the wrong especially when, as in this case, it is the Parking Services of Leeds City Council that are in the wrong.

Furthermore, such notices should only carry accusatory wording when it is absolutely clear and uncategorically proven that a specific, correctly and clearly identified vehicle, is contravening a given code or rule.

As much as I am extremely disappointed and angry that I have to take the time to present further evidence I now do so in order to put this upsetting and sorry matter to bed and so the alleged 
– and erroneous – contravention can be withdrawn.

Please find attached photo-image of the vehicle I currently own and drive 
– a 2003 Ford Fiesta Ghia, 5 door, registration **** ***.

I have purposely taken the photograph in similar profile shot as is presented in one of the Case Evidence photos 
– this very clearly shows they are two different motor vehicles.

I was also advised that I should present proof that the vehicle under my ownership is indeed the vehicle I claimed it to be.
This being so please find enclosed copies of two documents that clearly identify the vehicle's registration and make/ model type.

I would be astonished and outraged if any further evidence/ information is required to rectify this error by Parking Services but if there is still any dubiety over the vehicle in your photographs I can confirm my car was at my home address at the time of the alleged offence (229 miles away), then parked outside my place of employment shortly before 9am (less than two hours after and, again, some 229 miles from, the alleged contravention).


Even without evidence of the car's exact whereabouts before 8.50am on the 22nd of November  I have to say that, sadly, even Sebastian Vettel couldn't get that nine-year-old Ghia from Prestwick in Ayrshire to Vicar Lane in Leeds – and back again – in the allotted time (not even if it was downhill all the way and he had a favourable wind).

And I would have more than a Bus Lane contravention fine to worry about; there would be the small matter of dozens upon dozens of speeding fines from camera traps on the A71, A77, M/A74, A65 and A660.

I digress.
The requested evidence and additional information should never have been necessary, rendered completely redundant by the fact the vehicle in your own photographs has been identified incorrectly (and therefore also identified the wrong owner).

And, meantime, the owner/ driver of the vehicle that did contravene your regulations is sitting pretty, having seemingly dodged a Bus Lane bullet.  

Furthermore, I would enquire if the person or persons who misidentified the vehicle will be disciplined, have their competency and capabilities reassessed and/ or be given a free eye test.
Or are such identification processes now handled by computer-controlled identification software?
If that is indeed the case, it is clearly hit-and-miss.

By way of counter-response to your own requests and to follow on from the above paragraph, I hereby formally request the following:
Information on how Leeds City Council Parking Services process these fines and how vehicle identification is determined.

If you have access to registration ownership surely you can access the DVLA or acquire specific car type, make and colour information from the Vehicle Registration Department 
– or a number of other, legal bodies who carry such information.   

In fact, I'll give you some assistance.
You are seeking the owner/ driver of a 2003 Vauxhall, registration *B** *** , model: Meriva Design 8v, colour: Aluminium.
I've also attached a picture of a 2003 Meriva Design from a sales site 
– profile/ body-shape look familiar at all?

And that's Joe Public accessing basic on-line information, using no more than the click of a mouse and one of the many registration-check sites, then doing a car-shape analysis.


Do I need to come down there and do your job?
I
f I do I promise not to park on, or near, the Bus Lane at Vicar Lane at the Kirkgate Junction.
 
I trust I will receive confirmation, IN WRITING, that this Penalty Charge Notice has been withdrawn and that records will indicate it was "Issued in Error" by Leeds City Council employee or employees 
– at your absolute earliest.

Please note this email has also been forwarded to the Complaints/ Procedures Department of Leeds City Council (via the on-line option on the Leeds City Council website).

Yours,

More than 200 miles from Leeds,

Ross Muir

Prestwick
South Ayrshire



Afterword.

I received an apology within 20 minutes of the start of the Parking Services next working day (they usually allow 10 Working Days to assess an appeal).

I did not, however, receive any information in respect of my request in connection with how Leeds City Council Parking Services process these fines or how vehicle identification is determined.
The council's own Complaints Department also blanked my letter and passed the buck back to Parking Services.

I therefore stepped away from the whole sorry scenario, safely filed my written apology 
– and then advised them I would be making a Freedom of Information Act request for the information.

This means they will have to take a few hours out of their day to assess, collate and respond to an issue that should never have been an issue in the first place.


Now you know what it feels like, Leeds City Council Parking Services.
Have a nice day.
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