Croydon Council has been accused of “corruption”, as dozens, perhaps hundreds, of residents have been issued with demands for £190 for driving offences after failing to pay the original £65 Penalty Charge Notice – which they never received.
‘Technical glitch’: Penalty Charge Notices have not been going out from Fisher’s Folly, the latest balls-up from the ‘digital-first’ council
Some suspect that continuing issues with postal deliveries by Royal Mail may be a partial explanation, though one Tory councillor has suggested that the failure to issue PCNs is more likely down to a “technical glitch” at the council.
Complaints from seriously out-of-pocket locals have been dropping into the email inbox at Inside Croydon Towers over the weekend.
Many readers have admitted that they may have been spotted via CCTV having crossed a line in terms of traffic restrictions when driving around the borough, but also bitterly resenting not having had the 14-day grace period to pay the basic penalty of £65.
“Has anyone else been issued a ‘charge notice’ £190 from Croydon Council for failing to pay a PCN – £65 if paid within 14 days?” one asked.
“I have, but I did not received the PCN!
“As per normal, trying to find a way to contact them is impossible.”
Most of the tickets will have been issued for driving offences, rather than parking tickets, where a physical notice is usually slapped on to a windscreen. Driving down restricted access school streets is a likely, common offence. The lack of postal deliveries might explain the absence of the initial PCN through the post – but then, Royal Mail appears to have had no problems when it comes to delivering plenty of follow-up, £190 fines.
“I have recently received two notices from Croydon Council informing me of my failure to respond to… Penalty Charge Notices and that the PCNs have therefore now been served,” one loyal reader emailed.
“This of course results in an increased penalty charge and the withdrawal of any discount available for making immediate payment.
Sting: drivers usually get parking tickets plastered to their windscreen. Other offences are picked up by CCTV
“The penalties themselves were for contraventions of a Low Traffic Neighbourhood zone and a pedestrian zone respectively. I have no issue with these other than that motorists are a soft target and that these types of traffic controls seem to me to be fairly recent innovations with which motorists are still becoming familiar.
“My issue is that I did not receive either of the initial notices of PCN that the council claims to have sent out. On recounting my concerns to a friend, it transpires that they have had a similar recent experience, that is receiving the service of their PCN without the initial notice from Croydon Council having been received.
“Three out of three. Surely the post isn’t that bad!
I have now paid the charges. I have done so because my only other recourse is to go through the ‘Statutory Declaration’ process to claim non-receipt. This is an unwieldy process that requires the declaration to be witnessed by a court official (no doubt with a cost involved) and no guarantee of success.
“I am no lawyer but I fear any kind of appeal or delay that is unsuccessful might also risk further charges for court or prosecution fees.
“If the council is just inefficient, I would further risk this process being disjointed with the prosecution itself and therefore risk a knock on the door from bailiffs.
“The cynical half of me is concerned that this is actually a deliberate tactic employed by a cash-strapped council to increase income with minimal risk of any repercussion.”
Others have also made comments via social media. “There must be a fault somewhere when so many letters with original penalty notices are not being received. Did the postman deliver or did he take them home? Were they even sent out?”
Another wrote: “We are all happy to pay the £65 if we received the original fines, but they are adding on £130 per fine. Looking at the amount of people on here saying the same thing, Croydon Council are getting thousands of profit!”
Then there was: “We didn’t get the first letter, only the second one. Now they want £195. We’ve emailed the council and now waiting for response.”
Digital farce: the warning notice that has been on the council’s website for most of this year
One reader had been driving near Kenley School: “Same happened to me. Initial letter not received and now £195 fine! Problem is the letter clearly states I only have 14 days to respond, whereas the [council’s] PCN email [account] can take 56 days to respond, if at all! The letter says after 14 days, they will take action.”
It all appears to be the latest massive cock-up from the “digital-first” council that, since the start of this year, has had to have a big yellow warning notice plastered across its website: “Online forms: We are experiencing technical problems with some of our online forms. There may be a delay in receiving a response to your enquiries. We apologise for any inconvenience.” So no change there then…
Asked about the PCN “glitch”, a Katharine Street source told Inside Croydon, “I couldn’t even guess what’s the cause. Hopefully the miscarriage will be admitted and the fines will be reduced to £65 and the unfortunate people who have paid the extra out of fear of prosecution receive some refund.”
One councillor, at least, is being pro-active in taking up the matter with council staff, and acting in the interests of residents.
Asking questions: Councillor Alasdair Stewart
Alasdair Stewart, who represents Purley Oaks and Riddlesdown, said: “It’s clear from the residents I’ve spoken to, both in person this weekend and on online platforms, that there is an issue – possibly compounded by delays and issues with Royal Mail deliveries.
“I’m sorry for the added stress this will be causing residents, especially at what is typically an expensive time of year. The Mayor and relevant cabinet member are aware, and I’m sure will do everything they can to fix any issues and ensure residents don’t lose out.
“If anyone didn’t receive the original Penalty Charge Notice notification letter, they should contact the council directly or via their local councillors.”
And residents seeking a solution of their own, rather than relying on their notoriously unreliable council, do have a DIY legal solution, too.
It involves filing a statutory declaration with the Traffic Enforcement Centre, or TEC.
It does mean going to the County Court and getting the declaration signed, but once received by the TEC, it will stop any further action against you by Croydon Council.
The TEC will then look into the matter and make a decision.
You will need to provide as much evidence as you can – although the evidence of the absence of the initial PCN might prove tricky. So a firm, fair and clear statement of fact will have to be included.
Of course, Mayor Jason Perry could intervene, and order the council to stop issuing any of the £190 fines until everyone is satisfied that the “technical glitch” is fixed, and then to rescind all PCNs issued since an agreed date, on the grounds that the council itself has failed to carry out its own admin properly, with refunds to everyone affected.
But that would be the decent, honest and sensible thing to do. So they won’t be doing that.
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The whole point of PCNs is to stop people driving/parking where they are increasing danger and pollution – not as a money-making scheme for the council.
The success of low traffic neighbourhoods and safe streets would mean fewer people being fined and less money collected because drivers are obeying the rules.
Overcharging people is not only an injustice for those individuals, it brings the whole system into disrepute and that fails everybody.
All PCNs should be by recorded delivery to ensure this type of money grubbing is stopped. Also, since when did petty traffic offences go up to £190?
“This type of money grubbing”, Ian?
You mean offenders paying a fine for a provable offence?
What are you, some kind of anarchist?
Looking at all those thumbs downs, it appears that all the Tory law-breakers and vandals are on day release…
It would perhaps go up a lot more if they were sent be recorded delivery. You should also consider that recorded delivery is no proof of receipt by the adressee as the Royal Mail dropped them on porches for three years – and the wrong porches in a number of cases. And even after lockdowns finished many are dropped and a picture taken.
One thing to consider is that PCNs are for a range of offences and wheras the act itself may seem petty the impact can be deadly or cause severe injury to others as has been evidenced.
Sadly a PCN is a blunt tool. I find that being fined £65 Ffor overstaying in a bay or not getting a ticket is petty but intentionally parking blocking disabled access and emergency access delaying treatment for a heart attack is not so petty – yet rather than receiving an automatic ticket from the traffic warden, the person resident having the heart attack or family member has to call up parking to actually have that access enforced or the person does not even get a £65 fine?
Remember the Traffic act sought to decriminalise traffic offenses and to alter poor and anti social behaviors – the fine does that. but again its a blunt instrument as for many on higher salaries or income £65 is cheaper than paying the parking charges which can be equivalent in many areas now.
When a Public Administration decides to go digital and removes all analogue means of communication (despite its Customer base still being 35%+ reliant on Analogue and more when digital crashes occur) removes people providing a failsafe and backup and removes those alos doing part of the joined up administration – gaps occur.
The sad fact is that this Council has no resource capability to deal with errors even if it is able to recognise those errors and even when presented with evidence of those errors still has no ability or motivation to rectify the errors.
This is the impact of cuts and poor regulations and lends to loss of public faith in public administrations.
That has got to change and quickly.
Our Executive Mayor runs a Facebook group that cheers the criminal destruction of ULEZ cameras. Now he’s been caught presiding over a balls-up that’s fleecing motorists caught by his cameras. How embarrassing for the poor chump
I delivered a car to a customer and have received a fine for entering a pedestrian zone.
Trouble is I don’t live anywhere near croydon and have no way to check the signs are in place. The photo and video supplied doesn’t show the signs at all.
Not sure what to do as I object to paying to deliver a car when they are literally around the corner from where the camera took the video.