EXCLUSIVE: Council looks like backing down over potentially hundreds of driving penalties that it issued without sending drivers the required, initial Penalty Charge Notice – and all thanks to readers of Inside Croydon
Fujitsu moment: Tory Mayor Jason Perry
“Has our wonderful Tory Mayor Perry employed Fujitsu to oversee PCNs?” one frustrated Croydon resident wrote this week, referring to the rogue computer firm enmeshed in the Post Office scandal, after receiving a demand for nearly £200 for a driving offence – without having first received the required warning letter and option to pay a £65 fine.
Inside Croydon’s email inbox was fit to busting at the weekend with notes from angry residents who had been hit with these huge fines without having first had the opportunity to pay the discounted penalty.
Was this all part of our cash-strapped council’s strategy to pay off its toxic debt?
Or was it just the latest civic cock-up at Fisher’s Folly, leaving long-suffering residents to pick up the pieces – and the tab?
It is all beginning to look very much like the latter.
Within hours of Inside Croydon’s report on Monday exposing the “digital-first” council’s latest colossal digital gaffe, the council issued a statement pretty much admitting that something had gone seriously wrong with Penalty Charge Notices issued at the end of 2023 (“wrong” in the sense that the PCNs were never actually sent out).
Mealy-mouthed: Mayor Perry’s tweet with its reluctant apology
And this was followed later by a mealy-mouthed, non-apology apology from piss-poor Perry, Croydon’s elected Mayor, saying sorry for distress or inconvenience that “may” have been caused.
The council is promising to update on the situation and contact everyone affected, though only if they discover a fault in their dodgy computer system.
The message from the council, repeated on Twitter by Mayor Jason Perry, read: “We are investigating a potential software problem that may have impacted some PCNs issued in the borough late last year.
“We are currently looking into this further and apologise for any inconvenience or distress that may have been caused.
“We will be in direct contact with anyone affected if our investigation does uncover a fault in the system. There will be a further update this week.”
Some ward councillors have requested that any of their residents who have had a £190 fine slapped on them without having had the opportunity first to pay £65 should contact them immediately.
As Inside Croydon recommended on Monday, the council should suspend the issuing of all £190 fines until what one Tory councillor described (somewhat dismissively) as a “technical glitch” is properly fixed.
All penalty charge notices where the initial notice failed to be issued should be rescinded immediately, on the grounds that the council itself has failed to carry out its own admin properly.
Refunds should be promptly issued to all who were bullied into paying the £190 demand and the Mayor needs to send a personal written and unreserved apology to all affected.
One civic campaigner, Derek Dishman, has written to Croydon Council seeking answers to several questions arising from this PCN debacle.
Keeping watch: the council’s traffic control cameras have been used to dole out fines. But who’s keeping an eye on the council?
He has asked whether the council identified any batches of PCNs which have not been posted, how many, on what dates, and “how many PCNs in total have not been mailed to the registered keepers?”
Dishman has a few real doozies for the propaganda bunker in Fisher’s Folly.
“What quality checks did the council have in place on the first day in which a printing problem occurred, if it did, to ensure that all PCNs which should be posted have been posted?”
And then there’s, “What new checks have been introduced since the problem was discovered?”
And, “Does the council intend to cancel all of the PCNs which were not posted?
“… I would be pleased to be told instead what went wrong, how it went wrong, how many PCNs are affected and what the council is doing subsequent to the problem.”
Seems entirely reasonable.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
As featured on Google News Showcase
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
- Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as well as BBC London News and ITV London
ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
Prosecutor, Judge and Jury yet again. The Council has all the evidence and will decide if a mistake happened? Fishy Folly if you ask me. I have just had a PCN issued in Waitrose Coulsdon car park when no offence occurred. They have all the evidence, but still issued a PCN when it should not have happened. I now have to appeal their error, which they will then Judge.
Waitrose car park is private land, nothing to do with the council.
PCN = Penalty Charge Noice if issued by a local authority; Parking Charge Notice if issued by a private landowner
Croydon Tories are bungling hypocrites.
Our Mayor runs a social media group that campaigns against the £12.50 ULEZ charge. It also allows people to plan and celebrate the criminal damage of ULEZ enforcement cameras.
His Cabinet Member for Finance, Councillor Jason Cummings, hopes his public opposition to what he terms the “unfair” ULEZ will help him become the Croydon East MP.
Now our Tory council has been exposed for hitting people with £190 fines after being caught on council cameras driving through LTNs.
The story is going viral; the BBC are picking it up.
In a panic-stricken damage-limitation exercise, there’s a lot of speculation coming out of the Town Hall right now on what went wrong. The blame game has so far seen fingers pointed at software, the Christmas break and the Royal Mail.
There’s a simpler explanation; human error.
It’s yet more incompetence from Perry’s council, the one that expected a bogus company to deliver hi-tech bus shelters and bought School Streets Cameras that couldn’t read UK licence plates.
It’s now becoming clear that our part-time Mayor hasn’t got the capability or the motivation to meet the responsibilities of what is a demanding full-time role.
He should resign now; we can’t afford another two years of this clown
I saw this on BBC London South East News this evening (27/01/24) and find this rather interesting. I am in the exact position but with London Borough of Barking Dagenham! I wonder if London councils are using the same software / admin company and is this a much wider problem. ‘Software Issue’ now where have I heard that before?