I hope that a Bromley Conservative Councillor is reading this, and will do something about it.
I've just heard a lady on Radio 5 called Maureen Gebbett. She received a parking fine of £80 even though she had paid for a ticket. Apparently it was a hot day and it peeled off her windscreen so the Parking Attendant couldn't see it. She appealed the ticket and was told to go to see the council's solicitor in London. She did so and he recommended that the Council should cancel the ticket. The Council decided not to and made her pay.
Mrs Gebbett, 63, who sounded as if she is probably a doughty member of the W.I. went to her bank and asked them for £80 in 1p coins. When they heard why she wanted them, they couldn't hand them over quickly enough. She loaded them into a wheelbarrow and took the money round to the Council's offices and made the payment.
Makes you proud to be British.
What does not make you proud to be British is the attitude of the Council officers, who need to be reminded that they are there to serve the public and not the other way around. They refuse to meet with Mrs Gibbett. Perhaps Bromley councillors might like to take this up and pay Mrs G her money back (not in 1p coins!) and issue an apology for the appalling behaviour of their incompetent staff.
22 comments:
Iain, you're aware the Council could simply refused to accept the payment and still sued her for non-payment?
"Legal tender" only applies to certain amounts dependent on the denomination of currency used.
Paying in 1p coins is only legal tender up to 20p... any amount over that is not considered "legal tender" from the court's point-of-view, and does not need to be accepted in settlement of a debt.
From the Royal Mint, just in case any of your readers are thining of pulling a similar stunt:
Coins are legal tender throughout the United Kingdom for the following amount:
- £5 (Crown) - for any amount
- £2 - for any amount
- £1 - for any amount
- 50p - for any amount not exceeding £10
- 25p (Crown) - for any amount not exceeding £10
- 20p - for any amount not exceeding £10
- 10p - for any amount not exceeding £5
- 5p - for any amount not exceeding £5
- 2p - for any amount not exceeding 20p
- 1p - for any amount not exceeding 20p
Total overhaul of Local councils required..Councils operate for the benefit of councils and not the people that pay their wages.
Also Ian I don't hear your lot talking about any reform proposals to make councils more accountable and democratic
Maggie Gebbett actually:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5276148.ece
Instead of "pulling a similar stunt" to quote Wallenstein, your readers should counter-sue the council for £500,000 for hurt feelings and pocket the settlement out of court. Government by bureaucracy is tyranny. What is the point of an arbitrator if the council takes no notice?
The Council refused to accept the finding of the parking adjudicator too.
Toothless.
Local government needs to get back to the idea of being a public service and not a pseudo business with it's"customer" mentality. In the past there was something decent about working in the public service, now all that has gone and local government has become the tawdry anti-community mess that it is.
Well done Maureen Gebbett
You make me proud to be British
We want more
Legal tender Wot rot
Hope she emptied the barrow on the floor
Better add Gloucester City Council to your list of shame!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3203079/Choir-mistress-pays-hospital-parking-fine-in-3500-pennies.html
Iain,
I read this story this morning. What an utter farce. This lady had bought a ticket and provided a photocopy to prove so.
Yet another example of the Jobsworth Culture that now pervades the UK after 11 years of Nu Labour.
"It Can Only get Better" they thundered. It's a bloody disgrace.
That's it. Rant over. But it has to be asked what the hell has happened to the UK in the last 11 years.
Time for an election. This government is utterly useless.
Instead of contributing to Alex whatever-his-name-is's legal fees, perhaps we could all club together to pay Mrs Gebbett's fine? A far more deserving cause in my humble opinion.
"Instead of contributing to Alex whatever-his-name-is's legal fees, perhaps we could all club together to pay Mrs Gebbett's fine? A far more deserving cause in my humble opinion."
Absolutely!
PIENOMICS is obviously one of those moronic Tory trolls who has got his head so far up his arse his brain has stopped functioning.
Bromley Council is not actually run by the government.... nor is it a Labour Council. It has an overwhelming Conservative majority.
However, I agree with the assessment of some of your readers, it is obviously hopelessly run and the poor woman didn't think it was worth pursuing with her councillors.
Bob Piper I am well aware that Bromley is Tory run. It shows how pervasive the jobsworth culture has become under Nu Labour. And no I am not a Tory Troll. I am a classic floating floater. I just happen to be thoroughly disenchanted with the morons running the country. Rant over.
But it IS the government to ,Mr Piper. As with the police, local councils are full of people who joined for the right reasons, would like to serve their community, and honestly wish to do their best decently and honorably. But they have been corrupted (in the real sense, meaning made rotten) emasculated -(they have lost the power to decide for themselves) and imprisoned by successive rounds of "targets" and "performance" "incentives". It's not only Zanu Labour that is to blame for this, but it has got noticably worse, and these bodies have got remarkably more unpleasant about the pursuit of targets since 1997.
We have something similar in the borough where I live in that the Labour councillors are attacking the Conservative majority council over what they consider to be over-zealous enforcement of parking, whilst ignoring the fact that it was Labour that brought in these new rules under the Traffic Management Bill. Hypocrites.
I despise the council and the majority of council employees, the vast majority have no idea how things work in the real work place. A couple of examples of why i despise them. In a town centre close to me there is a public car park just off the high street. The council housing office is on the high street too. The council marked off some parking bays 'council employees only' right behind the office. Why? No other premises are allowed to do the same. Other example, the council HQ is next to a retail park, with multi storey car park which is not free to use. Big headline in local paper as the owner of the car park is insisting that council employees pay like everyone else to use it. It's an 'outrage' etc etc and the council tax payers should pay for their parking. The arrogance is overwhelming. Get a job in the private sector and have a reality check you twats.
Gauleiters.
I have been paying parking fines for several years in pennies. To get round the "legal tender" problem, I package the coins in carrier bags inside a box (or two) which I then thoroughly seal. If close, I take them to the reception, as a courier, and get a signature, if far, I post them by Special Delivery, which again has to be signed for.
Oh, I also slit all the little plastic bags which held the coins, and enclose them in the large boxes.
I have to tell you, it is VERY a satisfying thing to do. At least they have to exchange some labour and employee time for the ill-gotten fines.
Alan Douglas
At least he was a driver. Neighbouring (Tory) Bexley demanded £571.76 in parking fines off a blind man...
Hi
the LA i work for states on parking tickets and follow up letters that they will not accept coins in respect of paying for fines - only notes, cheques and credit cards.
chris 6499
Thurs 10.10
Have only just read this. I was going to respond in like manner to Wallenstein, but too late.
It seems to me that the legal way to pull the stunt is to pay over:
£5 in 5p coins
£5 in 10p coins
£10 in 20p coins
£10 in 50p coins
and the remainder as £1 coins.
Not as good as all pennies, but still inconvenient when all jumbled up in the same bag.
If a council refuses to accept coins that are legal tender (i.e. as above), is that not of itself illegal?
If a council refuses to accept coins that are legal tender (i.e. as above), is that not of itself illegal?
The phrase "legal tender" has a fairly narrow definition in this instance... basically if you are ordered by a court to pay an amount, and you follow the guidelines set out by the Royal Mint, you cannot be sued for non-payment.
For private individuals / businesses, the method of payment is agreed between each party... if one party doesn't accept cash then it's up to them (which is why BT can charge more for cash vs direct debit).
The situation is obviously different when it comes to public bodies, such as Councils, but I presume that if the Council took this woman to court for non-payment, and she paid as Inspector Morose describes, the Council would not be able to claim non-payment.
(I am not a lawyer, so the above could all be a load of old nonsense, but it's what I understand the case to be!)
I am a young local councillor at parish level and I have been very frustrated in the past by the overtly beaurocratic mechanisims of local government.
If local councillors cannot make logical and rational choices then there could be trouble ahead. People may expect blanket policies on a national scale but I expect a highly responsive and individually taylored local system to deal with anomolies such as this case.
If members of Bromely council would not personally deal with this case, then they are in the wrong job.
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