Lendal Bridge refund fiasco hits TV screens as

….. fewer than 20% get their money back

click to view (from 19:27)

click to view (from 19:27)

Last nights episode of the popular BBC Watchdog programme, may have prompted more drivers to apply for a refund of the fines unlawfully imposed when they crossed Lendal bridge in York.

The programme claimed, with the deadline of 31st December 2014 rapidly approaching, that fewer than 10,000, of the 50,0000 drivers affected, had so far applied for refunds.

The Liberal Democrat Group are going to propose at the next Council meeting (on 11th December) that the deadline be extended and that all who paid fines are proactively contacted and advised how to seek a refund.

Some who have applied for a refund have apparently found themselves in a Catch 22 situation with the Council only prepared to refund to the registered keeper. In the case of business, lease or hire cars this has involved the driver in an additional time consuming and expensive administrative loop.

Similarly there remains considerable doubt about how many of the fines issued to foreign tourists have actually been repaid. Given the reputational damage done to the City – and the importance of its tourism industry –  we would expect that the Council would already have taken action to reach this group of people.

The underlying cause of the problem, of course, remains the stubborn attitude displayed by some Labour Councillors who, despite the overwhelming evidence that was available by September 2013 that something had gone seriously wrong with the trial, refused to suspend it.

They are relying on the support of the 2 man group of Green Party Councillors to fend off the increasing calls for an inquiry into the mess.

Fresh call to repay all Lendal Bridge fines

Liberal Democrats are making a fresh call for all Lendal Bridge fines to be repaid following the resignation of council leader James Alexander.

Lendal bridge - always been busy at 5;00pm

Lendal bridge – always been busy at 5;00pm

Lib Dem Group Leader Cllr Keith Aspden will move a motion at next month’s Full Council meeting (11th December) calling for all fined motorists to be automatically refunded. He will be seeking support from other councillors to back the move in the coming days.

Cllr Aspden says the refunds need to be part of a wider rethink of council policies following the resignation of the Labour council leader yesterday.

Cllr Keith Aspden, Liberal Democrat Group Leader in York, commented:
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York Council project failures

Calls for system overhaul

With yet another major York Council project falling behind schedule, and hopelessly over budget, there are growing calls for a review of project management processes in the City.

Poppleton Bar Roadworks delays

Poppleton Bar Roadworks delays

The latest budget overrun is reported on the A1237 Haxby – Wigginton cycle path. As well as major delays the project will now cost over £1.3 million compared to a budget of £700,000.

A Liberal Democrat spokesman said,

“It is time re-introduce regular project updates to the Councils monitoring committees.

Any significant delay – or cost overrun – of more than 10%  must trigger a formal report in future.

We’d also like to see more openness in reporting with regular updates being posted on the Council’s web site”

As well as the cycle path, projects which would be subject to review include:

The Press are reporting that the Green Council Group Leader has now decided that there are questions about the Lendal Bridge trial which do need to be answered publicly. Despite voting last week against an Inquiry, he is apparently now saying that the Council’s Chief Executive should be asked to account for the mistakes at a “governance” committee meeting.

NB. The Lendal Bridge situation is also likely to be discussed at the Council meeting which is scheduled to be held on 11th December.

Lendal Bridge inquiry blocked as fresh report emerges

click for full report

click for full report

 

A cross-party review into the Lendal Bridge closure was blocked tonight despite the emergence of a damning new report into the botched trial.

 

A review of the controversial trial was requested by Lib Dem councillors in June, but blocked by Labour members.

However Cllr Andrew Waller, the new chair of the Economic & City Development Overview & Scrutiny Committee, made a fresh review proposal. This proposal was defeated tonight by 4 votes to 3 with Green and Labour councillors voting against. Westfield Councillor Stephen Burton again voted against holding an inquiry

Lib Dem, Conservative and Independent Labour Group members supported the review proposal.  

The issue is now likely to be discussed at the December Council meeting when opposition Councillors are expected to press for all drivers, who had been fined, to be written to and advised of their right to claim a refund.  The December deadline for claims is also likely to be extended.

Whether we will see a proper inquiry into the failings before the May elections remains to be seen. However, the content of the independent report means that questions will have to be answered sooner or later

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Lendal Bridge Inquiry to be revived

£162,000 refunded so far to motorists who were illegally fined.

It looks like the Labour Councillors who were responsible for the £1.3 million Lendal Bridge closure fiasco will not get away scot free.Lendal bridge notice

In August, when Labour still had a Council majority, they voted not to undertake a review of what went wrong with the trial closure.

Now a report, suggesting that a full and open inquiry into the failure should take place, is to be considered on 12th November.

  • Residents will be eager to learn how a scheme, that was obviously failing only one month into the trial, was  allowed to continue for another 6 months.
  • They will be expecting the legal advice received by the Council at each stage to be made public.
  • They will want to know what secret meetings took place and how they influenced the Councils position.
  • They will look very carefully at the public statements made by officials and Council members in March and April 2014 – after the enforcement arrangements had been found to be unlawful – and which gave the impression that the cameras were still being used for enforcement purposes.
  • The committee will also no doubt wish to look in detail at the costs that were incurred, not least those that accumulated during an ill considered attempt to appeal against the decision of the Traffic Penalty Tribunal Adjudicator

Most of all they will be looking to the Council to remove its arbitrary December deadline for refund applications – from those fined unlawfully – and to finally agree to write directly to all those affected telling them of their right to claim a refund.

So far 7,783 refund claims have been processed.

To date a total of £162k has been refunded as part of the refund process.

However, we understand that some claims have been refused and information about how many – and why – is urgently being sought by LibDem Councillors.

Income from the Lendal Bridge trial totalled £1,378,000. There was administrative expenditure totalling £527k which primarily covered the cost of processing penalty charge notices. As part of the year end accounts the Council made provision of £708,000 to cover the refund penalty charge notices.

 Separately the report confirms that the Adjudicator has still not dealt with an appeal against his decision on Coppergate. No camera enforcement of the Coppergate restrictions is currently taking place.

Cllr Andrew Waller – the new chair of theEconomic & City Development Scrutiny Committee  which will consider the report next week –  commented:

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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.

Lendal Man

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

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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True economic impact of Lendal bridge fiasco emerging

City centre  footfall up 60% compared to last August

increase-footfall-retail

The York Council delayed responding to a Freedom of information request until just 5 minutes after a key Lendal Bridge decision was taken yesterday.

After the meeting had concluded it emerged that the effect of the closure on City Centre businesses last year had been more substantial than had previously been revealed.

The Lendal Bridge restrictions were in place from 27th August 2013 to 1st April 2014.

Camera enforcement on Coppergate started on 15th August 2013

During the earlier part of the restriction period footfall – measured by a camera in Parliament Street – showed a significant decline peaking at -12% during September.

The situation improved only during March when a 14% increase was recorded comparing  2014 with 2013.

However, since the camera enforcement was stopped on 1st April 2014, visitor numbers have soared.

    • April 2014 up 29% on previous year
    • May 2014 up 21%
    • June 2014 up 25%
    • July 2015 up 33%
  • Aug (to 25th) up 60%

These figures are far higher than might be accounted for solely by the economic recovery.

Fortunately they do seem to suggest that the City’s reputation has not been permanently damaged.

A failure by the Council to refund all fines which were imposed unlawfully could change that picture.

The failure to provide information in a timely way – and prevent some Councillors from seeing key legal advice on the Lendal Bridge issue – may lead to the York Council Leadership being reported to the Local Government Ombudsman

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

Labour reject calls to refund all Lendal Bridge finesLendal Bridge closure Nov 2013

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 meeting – agenda papers published

The agenda and background papers for the meeting on 27th August, which will review whether or not to contact drivers to tell them of the availability of refunds for those fined for crossing Lendal bridge, have been published.

Details can be found by clicking here

Lendal bridge notice

Both the LibDem and the  Tory Council groups are advocating telling drivers of the availability of refunds.

Labour are putting the onus on drivers to appeal against the fines and say that they will rely on the “media” to get the word out.

Many of those fined were tourists who live in other parts of the UK and Europe. It is highly unlikely that all would read about the changed policy in local newspapers.

As the Council has withdrawn its appeal, against the traffic adjudicators judgement that the fines were unlawful, it has effectively admitted liability for maladministration.

That could in turn bring about further penalties for the Council if it fails to take all reasonable steps to refund the unlawfully imposed fines.

Residents can register to speak at the meeting. They must register by telephoning 01904 552061 before 5:00pm on Tuesday 26th August.

NB. Labour still have a majority on this “scrutiny” committee so there is no guarantee that changes to the Councils policy will be made.