Lendal Bridge fine refund scheme not working

Only 5500 motorists have so far applied for repayment of the fines – unlawfully imposed by Labour – on drivers using Lendal Bridge during the closure trial which started in August 2013.

This represents only a little over 10% of the total penalty notices issued.

Labour have set an arbitrary deadline of the end of December 2014 by which applications for refunds must be made.

The responsible Cabinet member claims not to know where the applications originated and the suspicion remains that tourists and other visitors to the City remain largely unaware that the refunds are available.

As we have said before, the reputational damage to York is irreversible but we believe that the new “balanced” Council must take immediate steps, to write to all these who were fined, telling them about the refund process.

It also seems reasonable to remove the deadline for applications.

With Labour having lost their overall Council majority they will no longer be able to block a public Inquiry into the actions that they took during the Lendal Bridge fiasco

Separately the Council has confirmed that its appeal against a parallel ruling on fines imposed on Coppergate, using similar signage and enforcement methods, has still not been heard.

Currently no enforcement action is taking place of the Coppergate access restrictions.

York Council labelled “Rotten Borough” by Private Eye

as “internet only” Lendal Bridge refund process announced

The York Council has said that drivers can apply for a refund of unlawful Lendal Bridge fines from Monday.

Private Eye 5th Sept 2014 click

However they will only be able to do so “on line” and a deadline of the 31st December has been set for applications.

The Council has become the subject of national derision following its decision to pay refunds ……….but not to tell driver that they were available.

Even the national satirical magazine Private Eye has labelled the Council as a “Rotten Borough” putting it in the same category as the likes of Rotherham and Doncaster

With Council elections scheduled for next May, it is highly likely that Labour will lose control and either an incoming LibDem or Tory administration will restart the refund process.

But in the meantime it seems that the only option for those not on the internet will be a trip to the local library or West Offices itself.

Clearly the Council are banking on the inconvenience putting many motorists off bothering.

Recently the Council decided by 5 votes to 4 not to tell drivers of their entitlement, so motorists in many in other parts of the country – and abroad – are unlikely to hear of the refund scheme.

The Council, statement reads:

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Westfield Councillor Stephen Burton casts deciding vote in 5 -4 Lendal Bridge fine cliffhanger

Labour reject calls to refund all Lendal Bridge fines

Labour have rejected Liberal Democrat calls for all motorists fined for crossing Lendal Bridge to be automatically refunded.

In July, Labour run York Council confirmed that it would drop its appeal against a Government Traffic Adjudicator ruling which said the Lendal Bridge closure was unlawful and would repay the 50,000 plus motorists fined. However, the Labour Cabinet decided that only those who contact the council and apply will get their money back.

Liberal Democrat councillors Keith Aspden, Ian Cuthbertson and Ann Reid called-in the decision for review saying that all motorists who received fines should automatically be contacted and then repaid, using the revenue from the fines currently ring-fenced in council reserves. The Lib Dems believe that the onus should not be on drivers to apply for their refund, especially as the majority of people who were caught out by the ban do not live in York.

However, tonight Labour used their majority on the cross-party Corporate and Scrutiny Management Committee to vote down the Liberal Democrat proposals and back the original decision by 5 votes to 4.

Cllr Burton who led the fight to stop an enquiry into the unlawful fines again toed the party line and voted not to tell motorists about the availability of refunds!

NB Important information that was apparently kept from the committee will be published here tomorrow
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Lendal Bridge fine refunds confirmed

Confusion over process continues

The York Council confirmed yesterday that it will refund the fines levied on Lendal Bridge during the 6 month closure trial.

However controversy continues as the Council does not intend to proactively tell those affected that they are entitled to a refund!

Labour Councillors claim that social and commercial media will be used to alert claimants but – with as long as 12 months having elapsed since some of the fines were issued and in many cases to drivers from other parts of the UK and Europe – most are unlikely to ever hear about the need to apply for a refund.

The Council should agree to write to every driver telling them of their right to claim a rebate and how to go about doing so

The Council have withdrawn their appeal against the “unlawful” ruling on Lendal Bridge.

They are continuing to pursue an appeal on Coppergate where no fine notices have been issued since April.

Labour save York Cabinet flops

……as Labour vote down Acomb regeneration proposal

Labour managed to get enough of their members into the Council chamber tonight to avoid the ignominy of having two Council members sacked from their Cabinet positions.

Cllrs Alexander and Merrett had been widely blamed for the failure of the Lendal Bridge trial with the latter having promised to resign if the Councils action had been proven to be unlawful.

Opposition members pointed out that the withdrawal of the Councils appeal against the traffic adjudicators judgement was an admission of guilt.

Labour were however forced to admit that no decision on refunding fines had actually been taken and their spokesman would only say that a meeting to discuss the proposals would take place “shortly”.

Both the responsible Council member (Levene) in a TV interview, and an official Council Press release issued on Tuesday, had claimed that the “Council had decided to refund the Lendal Bridge fines”.

Both those claims have now been proved to be untrue.

Cllr Levene also said that he didn’t know how much it would cost to refund the Lendal Bridge fines.

Labour went on to vote down proposals to introduce an ambitious regeneration programme for the Acomb Front Street area.

Lendal Bridge refunds – Council “don’t call us” statement

The Council has issued the following statement.

It is incorrect as the Council hasn’t yet decided to offer refunds on Lendal bridge fines. At this stage it is merely a proposal from Cllr Levene.

No date has been set for the issue to be formally considered by any of the Council’s decision taking bodies.

The Council statement reads,

The Council has decided to refund people who received a fine during the trial traffic regulation of Lendal Bridge, those who appealed to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal will receive payment from the Council and need take no further action. A refund will be made in all other cases provided a request is made through the council application process. This is due to the clear level of public concern during the trial. It is hoped that this can be seen as a statement of goodwill and we are drawing a line under the matter.

In order to protect the Council against the risk from fraudulent claims a simple application process is currently in development and it is anticipated that this will be launched in the near future. An announcement as to the opening of the application process will be made through the Council website and the Council’s normal communication channels.

Whilst we appreciate that those affected by this process will wish to make their application at the earliest possible date, refunds will only be made when requests are made through the official application process and contacting the Council prior to the opening of the process will not be necessary or assist your claim.

York Council to repay Lendal Bridge Fines

Coppergate fines stand – for now

In an amazing U turn – before even the results of their appeal against the traffic adjudicator ruling have been revealed – the York Council’s Labour Leadership has announced that they will refund over £1 million in fines levied against motorists who used Lendal Bridge during the ill fated access restriction trial.

They have yet to submit the proposal to a formal Council decision meeting.

The Council have already spent over £700,000 – of the £1.8 million fine income that it raised from Lendal Bridge and Coppergate – on administering the trial, so taxpayers are in for a hefty hit.

The Council only broke even on its budget during the last financial year because of the ANPR camera bonanza.

The failed experiment ultimately led to the demotion of Labour Councillor Dave Merrett, although he still holds a £20,000 a year Cabinet job.

Residents will now be looking at the future of Council leader James Alexander who bears ultimate responsibility for the financial and organisational disaster.

The Council have not said how motorists will be able to claim a rebate.

There is a suspicion that visitors – particularly those from overseas – may never hear about the change of heart. They may continue to be out of pocket as a result of the Councils unlawful actions.

Last month Labour Councillor Stephen Burton (Westfield) led an attempt to block plans to have an independent inquiry into the fiasco.

When unveiled a year ago, Liberal Democrats opposed the trial saying that it was badly timed and poorly executed.

In September 2013 (after only a few weeks of the trial) Liberal Democrats called for it to be abandoned against a background of huge enforcement issues.

If the Council had accepted then that they had made a major mistake, taxpayers would not now be facing a £1million bill.

The Council statement comes only 2 days after a Liberal Democrat Councillor tabled the following question for next Thursdays Council meeting.

(xxxiii) To the Cabinet Member for Transport from CllrAspden: “ Would the Cabinet member confirm the number of Fixed Penalty Notices issued for breaches of the access restrictions on Coppergate since 1st April 2014 and would he confirm that no action is currently being taken to enforce the restrictions?”

The Council was also finally set to discuss a motion submitted 4 months ago by Cllr Ann Reid which read,

To deal with the following Lendal Bridge notice of motion referred back to Council by Cabinet, from its meeting on 6 May 2014, after consideration of the evaluation of the trial. A copy of the Cabinet report and minute are attached as Annexes 1 and 2 (Annexes A to G of this report are available online only).

(i) From Cllr Reid

“Council notes the report in The Press on 27th February which revealed important facts about the Lendal Bridge closure.

Council further notes that:

The Labour Cabinet’s six-month trial closure of Lendal Bridge should have finished at the end of February
The closure has brought widespread criticism from local residents, business owners, tourists and tourist groups
Negative media and social media coverage has been generated to the detriment of our city
The closure has failed to significantly improve overall bus journey times
Traffic displaced by the closure has caused increased congestion elsewhere in the city e.g. Foss Islands Road and Water End at Clifton Bridge
Officers have admitted that the trial closure has had little impact on overall air quality
The Labour Cabinet Member responsible has admitted that the signage at the start of the trial was “very confusing”
Around 45,000 motorists have received fines for crossing the bridge.

Council therefore resolves to ask Cabinet to:

immediately end the trial closure of Lendal Bridge
publicly admit that the trial has been botched and to apologise for this
immediately publish the raw data on the trial ahead of their detailed evaluation report
commit to consulting with residents and local businesses before bringing forward any future plans for Lendal Bridge.”

It seems, that with many Labour Councillors now deserting a sinking ship, the Leadership has decided to try to find a lifeboat of its own!

York Police warn court fine dodgers to pay up

York police are warning people with outstanding court fines that they face being sent to prison if they don’t pay up.

York Magistrates’ Court has issued over 220 non-payment of fines warrants which have still to be enforced, some of which contain orders for immediate prison sentences.

It is normally the job of Civilian Enforcement Officers to conduct the warrants, with the help of North Yorkshire Police if required.

However, York police will be carrying out a number of operations in the coming weeks to round up offenders who haven’t paid their court fines.
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Lendal Bridge and Coppergate – York Council stopped issuing fine notices at the end of March

Coppergate restrictions still not being enforced

ANPR fine notices issued Click to access

A Freedom of Information response has revealed that the York Council stopped issuing Penalty Charge Notices (PCN) – using its ANPR camera information – on 30^th March 2014.

That is a week earlier than they admitted in the media at the time.

The figures cast doubts on the claims being made by Labour Councillors early in April when they said the controversial restrictions were still being enforced.

A few days later, senior Council officials clamed that the number of notices issued had been “scaled back” but declined to say by how much or in what way.

In reality it seems that the camera enforcement was abandoned even before the Lendal Bridge restrictions were formally jettisoned on 12^th April.

The situation on Coppergate appears to be different, at least in so far as the restrictions remain in place.

However no PCNs have been issued on Coppergate for over 6 weeks.

Contrary to claims made in the media (that the number of drivers ignoring the restrictions was reducing), the latest figures reveal that during March around 50 motorists a day were still being fined on Coppergate.

Things were little better on Lendal Bridge where 2135 motorists were caught on camera during March alone.

The Lendal Bridge trial closure had been due to conclude at the end of February and the Labour Council leadership was heavily criticised for not suspending camera enforcement until the results of the trial had been assessed.

In total 74,000 transgressions had been identified by the cameras before they were abandoned at the end of March.

Coppergate

The Council is now awaiting the results of its appeal against the Traffic Adjudicators ruling that both sets of restrictions were unlawful. If the Council fails to win, then it could face costs of over £1 million with many drivers likely to seek the return of unlawfully imposed fines.

The Appeal could take several more weeks to be concluded.

An Inquiry into the collapse of the whole project is expected to start in the summer using the Council’s “scrutiny” mechanisms.

Although the camera evidence is no longer being used on Coppergate, the restrictions there could – in theory – be enforced by a uniformed police officer.

Lendal Bridge/Coppergate fines income now over £2 million

Lendal bridge without traffic

The York Council has today published answers to questions raised at its last meeting.

In a response to Cllr Ann Reid, Cllr Merrett admits that the Council has now banked over £2 million from PCNs issued to drivers.

The Council claims “only 2 appeals have been successfully contested” against the charge although it admits that many appeals had “not been contested by the Council.

The full response to the question posed can be read here.

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