I lost.
Adjudicator's Reasons
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. The Appellant is appealing a PCN issued in respect of using a route restricted to
certain vehicles.
The Appellant has attended the hearing via Teams, as has the Council’s
representative.
The Council relies upon the contemporaneous evidence of the Civil Enforcement
Officer, a copy of the PCN, a copy of the relevant legislation and correspondence.
The Appellant contends that he received the PcN some two months after the incident
itself. He has obtained information from the DVLA (Enclosure 7) whereby the DVLA
contends that drivers’ details are sent out the day after any information request is
received. He therefore questions the veracity of the Council’s Case History, which
states that nothing was received from the DVLA until 9th June. He further questions
the veracity of the Case History, which sets out that a “blank document” was received
by the Council.
I have carefully considered all the evidence in this matter.
The CEO’s photographic capture shows the vehicle being driven into a restricted
street, in contravention of a “bus gate” restriction. The Appellant does not dispute so
driving.
The Case Status Report relied upon by the Council (Enclosure 10) purports to show
that on 9th June, a blank document was received from the DVLA. The Council’s
representative has confirmed that it appears that the PCN was initially logged as
“written off”
, due to this, and then some minutes later, that decision was reversed and
it was decided to make further attempts to obtain information from the DVLA. I find it
more likely than not that this case history accurately reflects the chain of events. This
all appears to have happened in the space of some 21 minutes. I find that there was
no prejudice caused to the Appellant and that the Council was entitled to pursue its
enquiries with the DVLA in order to ascertain the vehicle’s keepership, which was
subsequently confirmed and the PCN issued accordingly. The Appellant has
requested to see the “blank” DVLA response. However, the Council’s representative
has indicated that this response, as bearing no useful information, would not have
been kept on record. I do not find it proportionate to further investigate this issue.
Whilst I accept that the Appellant attempted to pay the discounted sum as offered
within the Notice of Rejection, and was prevented from doing so by the relevant
automated system, this does not afford him a ground of appeal. The offer was a
discretionary one and no legal obligation flows from it.
I am satisfied to the requisite standard that a contravention has taken place and that
no statutory ground of appeal or exemption has been established.
10.I must therefore refuse this appeal. The Council has today indicated that it will accept
the discounted sum of £35 in full and final settlement of the matter if such sum is
received within 28 days of the date of this de
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/yf9okjmqlyk0vme8pmbld/Decision_190019_SN00142-2509-redacted.pdf?rlkey=0kbhp35shpq5j0djw3az1tuo3&st=1zabwbnj&dl=0