22 December - Parking fines. Exposing Bexley’s dishonesty. (Episode 11)
Mr. Chris Loynes was the best Bexley council could offer when the retired
policeman insisted on an independent enquiry into how they had come to record a
series of untruthful statements in connection with an alleged parking offence and
then confirmed them all when irrefutable evidence showed them to be wrong. The
reality was that their procedures did not allow for any checking; extortion of
money irrespective of the facts was the priority.
The policeman was looking for more than an apology, he was looking for an acceptance that the policy was
fundamentally dishonest and should be changed. Mr. Loynes would only accept that
they were “unfair practices” but were not criminal. He also assumed that the fined
motorist was looking for monetary compensation because Bexley council had ‘fined’ its
parking contractor £120 and had thereby profited from its own dishonesty. The motorist’s
reply on 5th July 2010 made it absolutely clear that Mr. Loynes was wrong.
That
letter must have been difficult to answer because it was late October before
there was any reply. Bexley’s Chief Executive, Mr. Will Tuckley, took three pages to
explain that the only thing they had got wrong was not having adequate signage outside
the KFC takeaway in Bexleyheath Broadway. It had taken a whole year to make no real
progress. There was no recognition that Bexley’s appeal procedures take no notice
of any evidence supplied during the initial stages.
Frustrated by the lack of progress the persistent complainant resorted to the Freedom
of Information Act and took his case to Bexleyheath police. Unfortunately he almost
immediately came up against Chief Inspector Tony Gowen who is well known for his
reluctance to take action against Bexley council.
Bexley council continues to flout parking laws. An examination of the PATAS adjudications
for this month alone shows Bexley to be allowing fewer days for discounted payment
than the law prescribes (Case Reference: 2120504543) and is fining people for
momentary stops of two or three seconds. (Case Reference: 2120593190 and others.)
This story is reported in an indeterminate number of episodes.
A cumulative version is provided for convenience.