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.
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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
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