APPENDIX 21
Memorandum submitted by Mr Bill Urmenyi
ACCOUNTABILITY
Council officials, parking attendants and sub-contractors
are effectively immune to the laws of the land and there is no
accountability, which actually functions. For example, I have
had occasion to complain to the council that one of their officers
has blatantly lied to the independent adjudicator. The council
responded by refusing to look into it on the grounds that it was
a matter for the adjudicator. I complained to the council ombudsman.
The council then lied to the ombudsman who ignored the lie and
proceeded to inform me that he was not able to consider the case
as it was a legal matter being dealt with by the adjudicator.
The adjudicator can not act against the council for lying as it
is not in their remit. These people are now free to lie to whomever
they please without any fear of consequences.
SIGNS
The road signs do not give the restriction times
laid down in the TMOs. The motorist has to park first, go to the
meter and read what it says. The problem with this is that most
people assume that public and bank holidays are free and park
on single yellow lines. They never have sight of any sign to the
contrary as there is no need to read the meter. The councils are
well aware of this and use it to hand out penalty charges to the
unsuspecting motorists.
TMOS
There is no way of questioning them. They are
laid down as the law and that is that. They are used, however,
to scam the motoring public. There is no means of arguing their
reasonableness.
PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
The vast majority of motorists are not aware
of the difference between a public holiday and a bank holiday.
Domestic calendars do not specify which days are bank holidays
if those days are named days. For example, New Years day is never
marked as a bank holiday whether it is or is not. How are the
motorists supposed to know? The council use this to scam the motorists.
This is legalised fraud on a massive scale. There are very few
location where the distinction between public and bank holidays
needs to be made. Sutton Council however have decided to use the
fact that motorist do not know the difference in order to hand
out penalty charges to unsuspecting motorists. If the council
wishes to differentiate between public and bank holidays, it should
say so on its signs so that the motorists are warned. They will
still be in difficulty as they have no reasonable means of knowing.
How many motorists know that they need to contact the DTI if they
want to know which days are bank holidays. This situation has
led to hundreds of penalty charges being handed out on Boxing
Day and New Years Day. This is clearly not in the public interest
and has absolutely nothing to do with the proper control of traffic
and parking but everything to do with fraud. This is another case
for being able to question the reasonableness of TMOs. Sutton
told me that "there is no difference between New Years Day
and any other Saturday". These criminals are free to scam
motorists.
15 August 2005
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