Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Highway robbery

Keith Parkins | 05.08.2008 15:11 | Repression | Social Struggles | Technology | London

Across the country local councils are committing highway robbery, robbing people blind with unlawful traffic and parking schemes.

Last month it was highlighted on Indymedia UK that a street parking scheme in North Camp, the original Victorian centre of Farnborough, was unlawful, that to collect monies on an unlawful scheme, the council was committing fraud, a criminal offence.

 http://www.heureka.clara.net/surrey-hants/nth-camp.htm
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/404310.html?c=on
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/404836.html

The parking restrictions in the centre of Aldershot are also probably unlawful.

 http://www.heureka.clara.net/surrey-hants/ald-shot.htm

As a consequence, local traders, local businesses are suffering.

Last weekend, ipm, an interactive news programme on BBC Radio 4, made mention of the same problem, referring to an earlier programme where they had featured an unlawful traffic scheme in Walthamstow, on which Camden Council was still collecting fines even though it had been drawn to the attention of the council that their scheme was unlawful.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/ipm

It appears from their original feature and the response of listeners, that these unlawful schemes are widespread across the country.

It has been pointed out to the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor that their parking restrictions in North Camp are unlawful but the arrogant response has been to reply that it does not matter how the line markings are painted and to anyone who asks for their fines to be refunded the answer will be no as it gives the wrong message!

 http://www.gethampshire.co.uk/news/s/2031891_markings_make_parking_restrictions_incorrect

The London Borough of Camden collected more than £245,000 from motorists who drove down a pedestrianised street which was found to have been signposted unclearly.

A judicial review forced Camden to quash the parking restrictions in Primrose Hill because the local residents had not been properly consulted and the council has a legal obligation to consult.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/405173.html

Alan Stanton, a Labour councillor in the North London borough of Haringey, has described the council's past activities as 'highway robbery'. He said the borough continued ticketing two yellow box junctions in Tottenham even after they were found to be unlawful.

'We have taken £120,000 from people we had no right to take from. Haringey said that when it discovered the boxes were illegal it stopped enforcing them and gave refunds to motorists who appealed.'

In Sheffield, problems with the incorrectly-marked entrance to a bus and tram lane meant Sheffield City Council was able to pocket £350,000.

Oliver Mishcon, a barrister who specialises in motoring cases, has said local authorities have been acting unlawfully.

'It's a massive problem on a national scale and we're talking about councils making tens of millions of pounds. From a legal point of view, the term is unjust enrichment. And if the council unjustly enriches itself, it's got to pay the money back.'

In Leeds, the council is under police investigation for collecting monies on an unlawful scheme.

The London Borough of Camden collected more than £245,000 from motorists who drove down a pedestrianised street which was found to have been signposted unclearly.

In Lincoln, the City Council is having to refund motorists following a test case. The council had failed to paint the short terminating line at the end of a set of double yellow lines.

Up to seven out of ten fines are thrown out at appeal if motorists bother to contest them. Many though are put off because of the risk of losing their 50% discount for prompt payment.

 http://www.parkingandtrafficappeals.gov.uk/

In the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor, a retailer parked in a private parking area, and to his surprise was issued with a parking ticket. He appealed, not only did he win but the chairman of the Tribunal slammed Rushmoor for malpractice. They had no authority to issue tickets on private property.

A local council can only spend money in areas for which it has authority. It clearly has no authority to spend money on unlawful schemes. A matter for investigation by the District Auditor. Councillors who authorised this expenditure can be made to pay back any expenditure over £2,000 and be barred from office.

 http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/

To collect monies on an unlawful scheme is to commit fraud, a criminal offence.

Councillors who authorise expenditure on unlawful schemes have engaged in misconduct in public office, malfeasance and fraud. A matter for police investigation.

Councillors who authorise expenditure on unlawful scheme have brought their office and their council into disrepute. A matter for investigation by the Standards Board. Any councillor found guilty can be barred from holding public office.

 http://www.standardsboard.gov.uk/

Those who have been effected by unlawful schemes can file a complaint with the Local Authority Ombudsman for maladministration.

 http://www.lgo.org.uk/

Administration of an unlawful scheme could also be grounds to seek a judicial review.

Arrogant and incompetent council officials are not helping to keep our streets and towns and cities car free, they are though costing the local taxpayer for their arrogance and incompetence.

Underlying all of this is a lack of good urban design and planning and affordable, efficient public transport systems.

web

 http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/
 http://www.carfree.com/

reference and further reading

Terence Bendixon, Instead of Cars, Peguin Books, 1977

Lester R Brown, Plan B 2.0, Norton, 2006
 http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PB2/Contents.htm

Pete Castle, Markings make parking restrictions 'incorrect', Farnborough News, 11 July 2008
 http://www.gethampshire.co.uk/news/s/2031891_markings_make_parking_restrictions_incorrect

J H Crawford, Carfree Cities, International Books, July 2000
 http://www.carfree.com/

Richard Gilbert et al, Making Cities Work: The Role of Local Authorities in the Urban Environment, Earthscan, 1996

Peter Guest, Parking in North Camp Area of Farnborough, July 2008

Ray Massey, Councils cost drivers tens of millions in 'unlawful traffic and parking restrictions', Mail on-line, 30 May 2008
 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1022945/Councils-cost-drivers-tens-millions-unlawful-traffic-parking-restrictions.html

Jim Motavalli, 'The High Cost of Free Parking', E: The Environmental Magazine, March–April 2005

Molly O’Meara, Reinventing Cities for People and the Planet, Worldwatch Paper 147, Worldwatch Institute, June 1999
 http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/paper/147/

Molly O’Meara Sheehan, City Limits: Putting the Breaks on Sprawl, Worldwatch Paper 156, Worldwatch Institute, June 2001
 http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/paper/156/

Molly O’Meara Sheehan, 'Making Better Transportation Choices' [in Lester R Brown et al, State of the World 2001, Norton, 2001]

Keith Parkins, Curitiba – Designing a sustainable city, Indymedia UK, 5 April 2006
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/04/337682.html

Keith Parkins, Curitiba – Designing a sustainable city, www.clara.net, April 2006
 http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/curitiba.htm

Keith Parkins, North Camp traders suffer, Indymedia UK, 21 July 2008
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/404310.html

Keith Parkins, North Camp street parking, Indymedia UK, 28 July 2008
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/404836.html

Keith Parkins, The duty of local councils to consult, Indymedia UK, 1 August 2008
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/405173.html

Primrose Hill Ruling [Regina v Camden London Borough ex parte Mark Dyson Gordan Cran and Others (1995)]

Richard Register, Ecocities: Building Cities in Balance with Nature, Berkeley Hill Books, 2002

Keith Parkins
- Homepage: http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. urm, get a bike! — get a bike
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech