CROYDON IN CRISIS: Although Mayor Perry has apologised for the council’s own errors (more than three thousand of them!), seven days later worried motorists are still waiting for the written confirmation promised. And now there are fears about visits from the bailiffs…
Wanna dodgy PCN? Croydon’s Del Boy Mayor has yet to issue a single refund towards the £500,000 collected from dodgy fines
One week after Mayor Jason Perry and Croydon Council apologised for a tech blunder that had seen more than 3,000 motorists failing to receive the correct penalty charge notices – PCNs – and been landed with £195 fines instead, not a single one of those tickets have yet been withdrawn.
Despite the admission that it was the council’s error, unconfirmed reports suggest that people who have refused to pay the £195 fines may have now received visits from bailiffs. Bailiffs are officers of the court, acting on behalf of the council, with powers to confiscate property to the value of the outstanding fine.
Inside Croydon had been the first to report the concerns of many of our readers, as they were hit with the demands for £195 fines after not having responded to the original notice – because they were never sent it.
Usually, a motorist who has committed a traffic offence will receive a preliminary notice which offers them the opportunity to pay £65 within 14 days.
But Perry and his council have admitted that for 3,138 driving offences that took place from October to December, they failed to offer residents the chance to pay the £65 fine.
After spending a whole week trying to locate the source of the error, part-time Perry, Croydon’s Mayor, blamed the dodgy fines on a computer software error and issued a grudging apology.
Croydon’s “digital-first” council then compounded the problems because many of those affected found it impossible to contact officials to raise their concerns because of deliberately under-staffed phone lines. Many encountered similar problems this week, after Perry and council chiefs had asked them to call in to report their dodgy fines.
A week ago, Perry and the council issued a statement on social media which said, “We are really sorry about this, and we are working as a priority to identify everyone who has been impacted. Please be assured that any affected penalty charge notices will be cancelled. We will be issuing refunds to those who have already paid and will be in contact with them to arrange this.”
Seven days later, Perry’s council has not cancelled a single one of their dodgy PCNs, adding to the anxiety for thousands through their own maladministration.
Last night, after seven days of silence on the issue, the council issued an “update”. Except there was noting updated at all, and the Twitter thread merely re-stated much of what they had said a week earlier.
“Penalty Charge Notices (PCN) update,” the council posted on its Twitter account some time after 6pm. “Our initial investigations have identified 3,138 motorists affected by issues with printing penalty charge notices late last year.” They’d said that last week.
“We can confirm that contraventions did occur, but motorists didn’t receive the initial notice offering them the opportunity to pay the penalty at a discounted rate.” Ditto. This is a repeat of the council’s admission of their own maladminstration.
The next bit was new, though. It was an admission of further maladministration. After a full working week, they had still not taken the prompt action that they promised that they would: “If you were affected, you’ll shortly receive a letter from us confirming that your PCN has been cancelled, and those who have made payments will be refunded within 28 days of the letter.
“Once again, we’re sorry about this and we’re putting in new procedures to prevent this from happening again,” was the conclusion of the council “update”.
Time to call for help: the Local Government Ombudsman has a complaints procedure for times such as this
There was no suggestion this time around from the council for those affected to contact them, which you can do by emailing pcn@croydon.gov.uk, or phone the council (last week they suggested using the council’s main switchboard number, 020 8726 6000, then selecting option 1, and dialing extension 44056). Good luck with that.
The council runs only limited opening hours, even for an emergency of its own making, so you won’t get anyone answering the phones at weekends or before 9am or after 4pm on weekends.
But as one loyal reader has suggested, perhaps it is time for all of those affected by the council’s own maladministration to lodge formal complaints with the Local Government Ombudsman. Details of how to file a complaint to the LGO can be found by clicking here.
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