Council loses out in parking appeal

Council loses out in parking appeal

/By Karen Spibey <mailto:kspibey@burytimes.co.uk>/

BURY Council has lost out in a bid to overturn a Prestwich solicitor's
parking ticket victory - but is now considering another legal challenge.

Aubrey Isaacson is now calling on the council to admit that "enough is
enough" and to stop spending public funds on fighting the case.

Mr Isaacson initially won his case over an "invalid" parking ticket at a
hearing before the National Parking Adjudication Service in Manchester
in August.

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However, car parking bosses at the town hall launched an appeal against
the adjudicators' decision and called for a review.

Earlier last week, the adjudicator rejected Bury Council's request and
further criticised the authority for not amending its Traffic Regulation
Orders following de-criminalisation of parking offences in 2002.

Bury Council, however, said they STILL believe they have a strong case
against Mr Isaacson and are currently seeking legal advice on whether to
proceed to a judicial review. Mr Isaacson, who is now seeking recompense
for his time and effort, which has so far reached more than £1,600 for
his and a client's case. said: "I am Bury taxpayer and all I am asking
is that they stop throwing good money after bad. The money that has been
spent so far on this case, and what the legal department is proposing to
continue to spend seems an absolute waste, when they are clearly wrong."

Coun John Byrne, executive member for transport, said: "The fact remains
that Mr Isaacson did infringe the law when parking and I hope that we do
get his parking fine. We still believe we have a case and if counsel
confirms this then we will seek a judicial review. The adjudicator
brought up points that had not been raised previously and that is what
we objected to."

Following the adjudicators' decision, Bury Council were asked to set out
their reasons in full, within 14 days.

However, they failed to comply to these guidelines and the adjudicator
rejected their application for review on the grounds that they had not
provided sufficient details of their argument.

Mr Isaacson said: "Bury bungles again! They couldn't even get this
right. The adjudicator calls for commonsense when dealing with parking
enforcment, but sadly, commonsense seems to have gone out of the window
in the ever increasing search by local authorities for revenue form the
motorist."

Mr Isaacson had received his parking ticket for not parking correctly
within white lines on the Longfield Centre car park. After studying the
Traffic Regulation Order (TRO), he discovered that Bury Council should
have stated on the ticket that it would be an offence if he failed to
pay the Penalty Charge Notice.

However, when the case was heard at the National Parking Adjudication
Service, it became apparent that the council was endorsing an invalid
Traffic Regulation Order as parking offences had been decriminalised in
2002.

Mr Isaacson also won an appeal on behalf of his client Mr David Silver,
who had received a ticket for not displaying his disabled badge correctly.

The adjudicator also rejected the council's application for review in Mr
Silver's case for the same reasons and warned that the council should
not have issued a ticket for failure to display.

Review adjudicator Stephen Knapp said: "It seems to me that the
adjudicator is correct in his view that the council has made no effort
to review or individually amend its TROs despite the fact that a simple
mechanism is provided for this purpose. Given this simple procedure, it
is difficult to understand why the council could not make the necessary
modifications."