Newham Council slammed over £5,700 parking fine
- Credit: Archant
Newham Council has been accused of acting beyond its powers and in “deplorable and utterly unacceptable manner” in a parking dispute.
The comments were made by independent adjudicator Ms Neeti Dhani.
She made them after allowing an appeal by a driver charged £5,720 in storage fees after a £65 parking fine was put on his car before it was towed away.
Asif Nazir says he returned to his car four days after parking it in Outram Road, Upton Park, on January 5 to find it had disappeared.
At the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service hearing Ms Dhani accepted a sign detailing temporary parking restrictions was in place but ruled it was placed at too low a level.
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Mr Nazir said he had not collected the car because he believed he could not challenge the penalty if he paid the fine and Ms Dhani accepted the council had made contradictory statements in its letters as to his rights to appeal.
The bill was made up of a £60 penalty fine, a release fee of £200 and a daily storage charge of £40.
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Mr Nazir also demonstrated that the time on the penalty notice was nearly an hour after the time on a photograph showing his car with a ticket.
The appeal hearing also heard it was not clear what has happened to the vehicle.
Ms Dhani said: “For a public authority to act in such a manner is deplorable and utterly unacceptable.”
A Newham council spokeswoman said the council would review the feedback.
She said: “We acknowledges the decision and regret in this rare instance, that our parking administrative processes did not meet their usual high standards.”
