Parking Mad (BBC One, 8 Jan 2013 22:35 - 23. 25) was an “observational documentary about people who fight their parking tickets.”

 

It included scenes in the White Horse Hotel in Rottingdean, the hearing venue for the Traffic Penalty Tribunal Parking Adjudicators, where an appellant disputed a Bus Lane Penalty Charge Notice on the grounds of faulty signage on this particular day, issued in the North Street/ Castle Square round-about last year. He won and the Council were instructed to cancel the PCN.

 

He asked for costs but was told it was very rare to get that. As explained on the Traffic Penalty Tribunal web-site: “The grounds on which costs may be awarded are few and such instances are rare. You may apply for and be awarded costs if an Adjudicator considers that the council has been "frivolous, vexatious or wholly unreasonable" in its conduct of the matter. If awarded, costs relate only to reasonable expenses incurred in preparing the appeal. There is no element of compensation for inconvenience or distress, or to punish the council.”

Given that the Council Officer conceded as soon as the photograph was shown to him and it seems had that evidence all the time anyway, it did emphasise the appellant’s point that most drivers will just pay the £30 discounted penalty rather than risk the doubled penalty (£60) if an appeal is lost. (Note the rates are now £35/ £70. )

 

The Council “netted over half-a-million pounds” of bus-lane fines.