John Talliday-
Brent Council is under fire original conduct against a motorist, after wrongly charging her for not obeying the rules. The North West London charged Heather Jones a penalty of £65, for a wrong right-hand turn in Kensal Rise, but was successful in having the ruling overturned by an adjudicator.
Ms Jones was negligently sent a picture of the wrong car turning into Bolton Gardens in September last year, but despite feeling the pressure to pay the £65 fine, she did so ‘without prejudice’, the ruling states.
After waiting more than five weeks for the council to send a picture of her car, the council carelessly omitted her registration number. Her appeal was dismissed, but she has since been exonerated by a traffic adjudicator who reviewed the case.
The eye of media.com heard that over £3,000 people were similarly charged for making a turn against which there had been no warning visible to motorists. The council may not be hit with a flood of claims asking for compensation.
The news, brought to the attention of the eye of media.com through affiliates of the Kilburn Times, will pile pressure on the Council to address the flaw, and compensate all motorists who have been wrongly charged for an offence they could not have been expected to prevent.
Ms Jones first appeal to the council was rejected after she had already paid the fine, but the judgement was subsequently overruled when the council failed to provide supporting evidence in court.The overruling questions the judgement of the Council in failing to reverse their decision, even when faced with evidence that their ruling was mistaken.
The council ridiculously said it was a ‘rare administration error’ and had ‘absolutely no intention’ of paying her compensation.
Ms Jones was awarded £97 in compensation last month after the council provided no evidence to counter her claim.
In a criticism against Jones I still haven’t been paid. Had I owed them money, after 14 days it would have doubled. That really doesn’t apply to them, why not? How can they apply it to me and not stand by it themselves?”
A spokesman for Brent Council said in a statement: “Unfortunately, due to human error Mrs Jones’ application for costs was not responded to. The Adjudicator stated that they had accepted her claim for costs “in the absence of any evidence to counter it”.
“We have already been in contact with Ms Jones regarding payment of the costs which will be processed as quickly as possible.
“The statutory process for parking enforcement is set down in legislation agreed by parliament, and clearly sets out the level of penalty charge which is due at each stage of the process.
“The council has no power to penalise motorists for the late payment of fines.”
No specific date has been given to state when Ms Jones will be paid the ordered compensates, however, the council is obligated to make the payments, though should do it sooner rather than later.