I may have missed this if someone else has posted.
Council changes mind on appealing High Court parking charges ruling PDF Print E-mail
Thursday, 08 August 2013 18:45
Barnet Council has decided against appealing a High Court ruling that its decision to increase the charges for residents’ parking permits and visitor vouchers in controlled parking zones was unlawful.
Last month Mrs Justice Lang ruled that Barnet’s purpose in increasing the charges was to generate additional income to meet projected expenditure for road maintenance and improvement, concessionary fares and other road transport costs.
The judge said: “The intention was to transfer the surplus on the Special Parking Account to the General Fund at year end, to defray other road transport expenditure and reduce the need to raise income from other sources, such as fines, charges and council tax. This purpose was not authorised under the [Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984] and therefore the decision was unlawful.”
In the immediate aftermath of the High Court’s ruling, Cllr Cornelius, Barnet’s Leader, had said: “Both our pricing and spending are very much in line with other London boroughs and I very much believe that our spending of the income from our parking account on items such as road maintenance and transport services is entirely within the scope of the special parking account under the Road Traffic Act. With that in mind I don’t think we have any alternative but to look to appeal this decision.
“That said it is fairly clear that the council raised the price of parking permits, after five years of a price freeze, too abruptly and rather charmlessly. I will make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
However, Barnet has now ruled out an appeal. It has promised to revert to the old charges and refund residents who made payments at the increased rates for their annual charges and/or for visitor vouchers the difference in charge.
Cllr Cornelius said: “After taking legal advice, we have decided not to appeal against the court`s judgement that the charges for CPZ were increased without going through the proper process.
"I am sorry that this was done in the way that it was. The Court has ruled that the increase was wrongly implemented and so we will go back to the old charges. Any change to these will have to go through the proper process.”