Chairman's Blog - October 2023
PENALTY CHARGES SURVEY
In April this year, the Sunday Times carried out a review into the parking ticket fines handed out by local authorities. Councils had handed out 3.3 million penalty charges notices (PCNs) costing £265 million in 2022 and the number of notices was 27% higher than in the previous year. They are given for offences such as failing to buy a parking ticket, parking on a double yellow line or in permit only zones or driving in a bus lane.
Part of the increase is due to the use of apps to replace cash at parking machines, which are difficult to use, or the rare cases when the machine is simply faulty. Many people suspect that councils increase the number of penalties to shore up their budgets.
Merton Council charged an average of £117.67 per fine with a total value of over £17,000,000. However, among London councils Merton had one of the highest rates of tickets overturned on appeal, at 6.6%.
London councils are now carrying out a parking charge survey, with a deadline for responses of 23rd October:
https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/LondonParkingChargesConsultation
Residents may wish to respond to this by the deadline. The information given with the consultation notes that since 2010 penalty charges in London have been grouped into two bands, Band A and Band B. Band A charges are higher and are usually in areas with greater parking pressure, such as central London and town centres. Band B charges are lower and tend to be in outer London areas where there is less pressure on parking.
There is a map showing which boroughs apply which bandings. Our eagle- eyed Advertising Manager, Dick Coleman, noticed that Merton, along with Croydon, are the only boroughs in south outer London to levy the higher Band A charges! This may help to explain why Merton makes so much money from their charges.
LESSA COMPLAINT
The Association has made formal complaints to Merton Council over maladministration in its handling of the applications to build on the site of the former LESSA sports ground off Grand Drive. The applications had to be in two stages, Stage One and then Stage Two and both have now been dismissed.
The Association is now asking the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to review these complaints.
John Elvidge
