BBC NEWS | UK | England | Kent | Parking complaints prompt review

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Kent | Parking complaints prompt review: "Parking complaints prompt review
Complaints from local residents about inconsiderate and sometimes dangerous parking in a Kent town centre have led to a review of on-street parking.

The district council in Sevenoaks has written to 3,000 householders and residents associations seeking views.

Proposals include restricting parking in some residential areas, issuing permits to residents, and making better use of roads near the railway station.

Several hundred more parking spaces could become available as a result.

Road safety

The draft proposals were drawn up in partnership with some residents associations, Sevenoaks Town Council and Kent County Council.

They also include extra parking for disabled drivers and school buses, some additional pay and display areas and new restrictions near junctions and corners to improve road safety.

Consideration is also being given to making a number of parking permits available at reduced rates for people who work in the town, and for those who use environmentally friendly vehicles such as hybrid or Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cars.

Residents have until the end of November to comment on the proposals.
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Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea bailiff’s letters for alleged old parking tickets

Sometime ago the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea started sending out bailiff’s letters for allegedly unpaid parking tickets issued up to 5 years ago. They told me that the letters were not sent out earlier due to a software problem which apparently has now been solved and now allows them to issue those bailiff’s letters. I frankly was unconvinced. Having worked with computers for something like 30 years, I know that if there was a problem with the software I would have expected other software to be available to produce the information required for the bailiff’s letters. If that wasn’t, then it throws into question the accuracy of the data which they are now using. In essence, if this software problem has existed for 4 or 5 years, how on earth can the council be sure that their records supposedly showing the issue of those parking tickets all those years ago are correct?



I understand that other councils did the same. My suggestion is that if you receive a bailiff’s letter in these circumstances and dispute the charge, write immediately to the council saying:-



1) You disagree with the charge;

2) Ask them for proof of the issue of the alleged parking ticket;

3) Send your response by email to the council and send a copy to the bailiffs.



The worrying aspect of the case in question is that the bailiff’s letter refers to people as having committed an offence. Now, under decriminalised parking law, parking tickets issued are not issued in relation to an offence – which are criminal matters – but alleged contraventions which are non-criminal. So in itself the letter that has been sent out on behalf of Kensington & Chelsea in my view is completely inaccurate and has no worth or validity. Remember you can fight back against illegally issued parking tickets.
If you want to appealsuch a parking ticket but don't know how - then
visit http://www.appealnow.com
where you can appeal online in 4½ minutes.

© 2006 Barrie Segal and AppealNow.com™ - All Rights reserved

Barrie Segal is the founder of AppealNow.com™ and is a regular radio broadcaster in the UK.

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