Challenging Parking Tickets -
Help to Create a Level Playing Field
If someone told you it could cost up to £60,000 to challenge a £60 parking ticket, you’d most likely think they were joking. But if you really believe that your ticket is unlawful and the Council refuses to cancel it, then you lose at appeal, where can you go next?
The answer is, next stop the High Court. Unless you qualify for legal aid (and so few people do these days) you are looking at a five figure sum! Access to the legal system for the proverbial "man on the Clapham Omnibus" has become prohibitive.
This lack of "equality of arms" has meant that there are effectively no checks and balances on the parking industry, so they have been able to operate outside the law, with impunity, for many years now.
The massive public response to recent media stories about parking and traffic enforcement shows that motorists are fed up with being relentlessly exploited. As there is no watchdog or Ombudsman looking after the motorists’ interests, it is down to some individual or group of individuals to take on the challenge.
Step forward Neil Herron, a man who is no stranger to controversy. Over the years Neil has collected parking tickets in his home town of Sunderland and challenged their legality. Despite overwhelming evidence of non-compliant parking bays from an expert witness, when the tickets went to appeal, the Adjudicator found in favour of Sunderland Council.
To cut a long story short, Neil has remortgaged his house and put his
entire life on the line to hire a
top flight legal team so that he can take the only route open to him, a
Judicial Review in the High Court. Justice - but at what price? And who is he doing it for?
It is open to speculation that the parking “Industry” thought it was safe and that nobody would have the guts (or resources) to mount serious legal challenge. They certainly have the money (mostly taken from us) to mount a defence.
But why stop with one case? It is in every motorist’s interest to support Neil’s efforts by contributing to a fighting fund that will create a truly level playing field in the future.
They have the money, and if you donate to the fund we will have the money – then it will be all fair and square. Equality of Arms will become a reality.
I'm not convinced. Tell me more.