Parking in Bus Stops

There has been much debate this week after the story of Mrs Hatton hit the press following her car being clamped after being issued a fixed penalty notice for stopping in a bus stop.

On this occasion the council were completely right to issue a ticket as stopping in a bus stop is an offence under section 243 of the Highway Code at it explicitly states that that you should not stop or park on a bus stop, tram stop or taxi rank. The Traffic Management Act 2004 gives authority for councils to enforce this by way of a fixed penalty notice (FPN).

With officers, I have reviewed the case and in this instance if Mrs Hatton had driven a matter of a few yards just passed the bus stop she could have dropped her father off without receiving a fine.

I know some may see the issuing of a fine harsh but this needs to be put into context as I regularly receive requests from bus passengers with mobility issues, mums with pushchairs, parents with children and drivers to put yellow lines and box markings on bus stops so buses do not have to alight in the middle of the road from all over the town and my own ward included.

The £70 FPN issued to Ms Hatton could have been reduced to £35 if she had agreed to pay it within 14 days. It is worth noting that another motorist who received an FPN for parking in the same bus stop at the same time immediately paid the fine.

Instead she chose to appeal the FPN, but even when we quite properly rejected her appeal we still gave her the chance to pay the reduced £35 rate as long as she did so within 14 days.

The letter informing her that her appeal had been rejected contained all the information she needed to appeal the fine further before the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. She did not pay the fine and she did not indicate that she was going to go to the Tribunal, so in March last year the council wrote to her informing her that the £70 fine had now increased to £105 and was payable within 14 days.

Again there was no response so in July last year the county court issued an order for the recovery of an unpaid debt of £112, including the fine and a £7 court registration fee. Mrs Hatton had until July 26 to pay the fine or file a statement if she believed she had grounds for not paying.

When no payment was received and no further contact was forthcoming the matter was passed to the councils bailiffs on December 17. The Council has acted correctly and lawfully throughout this whole process, but in recognition of the fact that Ms Hatton appears not to have understood the appeal process fully I have negotiated with officers to give her 14 days to pay the original £70 FPN and will then take no further action.

It is interesting that following the agreement to allow Mrs Hatton a period of time to pay the original £70 fine I have received numerous emails in my inbox with the overwhelming majority believing that the council should make her pay the full amount plus bailiffs costs. I believe taking into account all the information and circumstances following a review of this case the resolution that the council has proposed on balance is right.