Forum Topic

Why aren't Hounslow automatically cancelling Acton Lane diversion fines?

They know that anyone who drove north up Turnham Green Terrace between Friday evening and Monday afternoon was following what appeared to be an official diversion sign.Why do people therefore need to go through the appeal process?What possible explanation for this behaviour is there other than they dishonestly want to get money out of people who have done nothing wrong? For many people the cost of PCN is not an insignificant amount of money. At this time of financial stress for many some of those who unwittingly pay will be going through a time of great hardship.

Anita Blake ● 2194d7 Comments

The Local Government Ombudsman may feel they need to act in this case.If anyone is minded to make a complaint then you have to complain to the council first and then give them a reasonable amount of time to reply (maybe a week).The Ombudsman won't accept your complaint if it is a matter of 'personal injustice' i.e. you have been given a PCN.

Paul Corcoran ● 2194d

I guess that Hounslow wouldn't want to cancel any PCNs issued to cars that weren't just following the diversion signs.Oh, and they also probably want to keep the money from those who did follow the diversion signs but don't appeal.

Andrew Jones ● 2194d

Leaving aside the hypocrisy of LBH, the explanation of why they did nothing for 2.5 days is essentially "the emergency happened outside of normal office hours so we did nothing until everyone was back in on Monday, then had a cup of coffee, a couple of meetings and only then had a look at the problem".Think about it - the emergency happened at an inconvenient time for the Council.  They never had the wit to ensure there was an out of office hours contact for EMERGENCIES.Thank god they do not run the police, accident or fire services

Justin Stephenson ● 2194d

The idea that the council do nothing outside of normal office hours is grossly unfair. Somebody was issuing all those fines!

Paul Corcoran ● 2194d

I see now the story has been updated and Hounslow Council are now saying they never got round to sending out PCNs and won't be doing so. Hard to avoid the impression they would have done if they hadn't been asked about it.It is quite revealing that in principle they would have been quite on board with sending out the PCNs and collecting the money if the appeal didn't arrive.Just to be clear - you now will be fined if you go up Turnham Green Terrace although there is a suggestion if you drive up the road, stop for a few minutes and then get back in your car you can avoid a fine and a half an hour wait trying to get to Goldhawk Road.

Anita Blake ● 2194d

It’s because they act with impunity, as someone else mentioned it’s fraud to impose these fines and keep the money knowingly. Who is going to take them to court? Make the individuals in charge liable and prosecute them.

Craig David Mcdowell ● 2194d

Just got my FOI request back ... and between 18/08 and 11/10 there were 6248 PCNs issued for a 52J offence in TGT between 18/08 and 11/10.Hounslow did ramp up slowly though, only 1 PCN issued on 18/08, no PCNs on 19/08 before they started in earnest on 20/08.In comparison between 09/07 and 18/08 less than 100 PCNs were issued in TGT, while between 18/08 and 11/10 there were less than 100 PCNs issued than weren't code 52J.Out of the 333 '52J' PCNs appealed over the 11 days in October period, less than 10 appeals were rejected.There only seem to have been 70 '52J' appeals for PCNs issued in September, and a lot fewer in August.A couple of times they managed to issue over 25 PCNs in an hour.The number of PCNs issued is probably a significant underestimate of the number of vehicles that did go along TGT, given that the enforcement wasn't happening continuously.

Andrew Jones ● 2194d