Free Traffic Legal Advice

Let me begin by saying that i'm a local Councillor and I'm writing this due to some difficulties he is having.

The resident, lets call him Mr R, lives in a street which is designated a school street.

Because of his job, he is often chopping and changing vehicles.

The Council issued two PCN's to vehicles which were already registered "due to an administration error".  These have now been refunded but not the administration fee from the lease company.

In the meantime the council changed the way it handles permits outsourcing it to Ringgo.

There is another unresolved PCN for a different vehicle which Mr R tried to register with Ringgo but for some reason Mr R didn't realise there us now a separate 'activation' stage.

This raises two important questions.

1)  The lease company ALWAYS pays the PCN then charges it back to the customer, however by doing this they  take away his right to challenge any PCN and take it to a tribunal if necessary.  Is this legal?  How can Mr R get the company who employs him to tell the leasing company not to pay PCN's.

2)  The Council are refusing to pay the admin fees for the PCN's incurred as a result of their maladministration.  What rights does Mr R have?  Apart from taking the Council to the small claims court, how can he get his money back?

Lease and rental firms vary in their PCN terms. Some are good at the procedure to hand over the PCN and a few even refund admin fees if a PCN challenge is successful.

But the arrangement is between the company and hirer - an authority such as a council has no role in commercial terms about PCN handling, only in the correct handling of representations made by the registered keeper.