Despite solemn assurances from senior council staff and the borough’s executive Mayor, piss-poor Jason Perry, some motorists claim that they have been served with demands for £195 fines or threats of a visit from bailiffs – without ever receiving the usual, required warning notice for an offence. And people who want to challenge this are unable to do so – with emails to the council ignored, and phone lines unanswered.
Oi! Oi!: is Croydon Mayor Perry going to have to issue another round of fine refunds because his council cannot manage its own admin properly?
Inside Croydon was first to report the concerns of many of our readers, as they were hit with the demands. The issue was originally dismissed as a minor “computer glitch” – the council’s description, not ours – as the council failed to send the initial Penalty Charge Notice for motoring offences in October and November 2023.
If the system is working correctly, any motorist who has committed an offence should receive an initial notification, which has to be paid within 28 days, and an opportunity to pay a lesser amount, usually £56, but to do so within 14 days.
Obviously, anyone who doesn’t receive the initial notice is denied such an opportunity.
Earlier this year, thousands of motorists, from inside and outside the borough, were affected, and after the briefest of investigations, the council was forced to admit its error and cancel the fines. Firm assurances were issued by Mayor Perry and his lackeys that the council’s programming problem was all fixed and it wouldn’t happen again.
Candid cameras: Croydon drivers are not receiving their initial warning PCN letters. Again
Except that it seems to be happening again, and repeatedly.
Several readers have contacted Inside Croydon over the past month to relate that, just as before, they’ve had a £195 fine slapped on them without any prior, and legally required, notification.
This could be just the latest expensive error for the council under £192,000 per year chief exec Katherine Kerswell, and comes after iC exposed the council as issuing PCNs and other legal notifications carrying the signature of a senior official who had left their job at Fisher’s Folly nine months before – in another potential breach of its legal obligations.
One very worried motorist contacted this website saying, “The PCN fiasco continues.
“Croydon Council has clearly not fixed the problem that occurred last year.
“I have received two separate Charge Certificates demanding £195 dated March 19 and June 1 respectively. And I did not receive the original notice for either.
“Needless to say, I emailed the council immediately and received the automated reply that I only have to wait 56 or 90 days for a reply, but bailiffs will continue to act in the meantime.
“I also registered a complaint on their website for both and followed up with a phone call today only to be told I need to email the council (again) as the parking charge department is not answering phone calls!”
The fines are being issued as a result of the council’s Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras. Other readers have suffered similar shocks, and wrote: “Am I the only one? Or are there others out there?”
Perry’s cash-strapped council depends on around £1million per month income from fining motorists for driving up the wrong street at the wrong time of day, and other CCTV-generated infractions. The practice is all entirely legitimate, and used to deter motorists from using residential streets as rat runs or driving down school streets when children are in the area.
But issuing the correct paperwork, at the correct time, is a vital part of the council’s administrative task, and one where, yet again, they appear to be failing.
- Of course, if you have received a dodgy fine from the council without the initial warning letter, you can contact us with your story by emailing inside.croydon@btinternet.com.
Read more: Mayor Perry forced to issue apology for PCNs ‘software error’
Read more: Perry’s Facebook page part of Tory ‘vile cesspit’ of racism
Read more: Council’s PCN fiasco: ex-official is still ‘signing’ official letters
- 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
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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
It’s great reporting it but the question is, does anybody know if the bailiffs come round and what should you do in the event that they try to take something? After all they would say they’re only doing their job.
There’s a need to separate news reporting from consumer journalism.
However, since you ask, iC’s bailiff expert suggests…
Take the Bailiffs full name and address and company.
But before that, Pay it straight away before it escalates.
Then dispute it. All by email.
Paper trail is essential.
This is not maladministration, but blatant theft by the council via Perry. Why are thieves being given a licence to operate?
Does Croydon really need an executive Mayor?
If we didn’t … we’d still have Cardinal Newman.
As predicted whenever we tagged stuff #ABitLessShit, having an elected Mayor is hardly any different from having a “strong leader”.
And as Perry – the man who approved the CCURV flop deal with Laings, who OK’d Fisher’s Folly and who recruited Jo Negrini – shows with every passing day, he and Newman are peas from the same grifter pod.