Show Posts - Gary Bloke

Byelaws ANPR tickets which are delivered to the keeper more than 14 days after the alleged breach, are considered by POPLA and BPA to have been incorrectly issued. This appears to be thd case here. Too late to appeal to POPLA. I would just ignore it.

There is a strong argument that clamping at train station car parks is illegal, despite what the railway byelaws may say.  Clamping without "lawful authority" was made illegal by POFA 2012.  Railway byelaws (2005) say that clamping can be used - so the question is, do the Byelaws constitute "lawful authority" in the context of POFA? The following argument suggests they do not: Byelaws are local regulations written by local organisations and councils. They do not get discussed in Parliament.  POFA is a law passed by Parliament, so "lawful authority" in the context of POFA must include discussion and approval by Parliament.  Since Railway Byelaws predate POFA and were never approved by Parliament, they cannot constitute "lawful authority" as envisaged by POFA. Ergo, they cannot make clamping legal in the context of POFA.  Note that the situations in which clamping does remain legal - eg its use by Police and DVSA, have been explicitly enabled by laws debated and passed by Parliament.

Byelaw 24.4 states “No person shall be subject to any penalty for breach of any of the Byelaws by disobeying a notice unless it is proved to the satisfaction of the Court before whom the complaint is laid that the notice referred to in the particular Byelaw was displayed.” So only a Magistrate’s Court can impose a penalty for a Byelaw breach. Only the driver could possibly be found guilty. The position was confirmed by the DfT in a letter dated 18 February 2016. It says: “no other person or body other than the Court is able to impose a penalty for breach of the Byelaws [including Byelaw 14 (1-3)] made under Section 219 of the Transport Act 2000 (as amended) and made operational on 7 July 2005.”This letter can be found at https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/311011/response/770331/attach/2/F0013227%20Follow%20Up%20Reply.pdf

The APCOA "penalty" is not a real penalty. It is an offered contract in which APCOA promises not to prosecute for an alleged breach of Byelaws, on condition that you pay them £100 or whatever. Nobody has any obligation to accept an offered contract, so nobody has any legal obligation to pay APCOA the requested amount. You are perfectly entitled to await prosecution in the Mags Court. But APCOA are highly unlikely to ever prosecute, because any fine imposed by the Court is paid to the Government. So it's all a big bluff. After 6 months the prosecution window closes.