30 January (Part 2) - Motorist chased for £0.00 debt
I have been able to read email via webmail and a neighbour’s internet
connection and I’ve seen several that tell me about Bexley council issuing a
penalty notice to a motorist who had paid £3.80 to park for two hours in New
Road, Abbey Wood. A demand to pay £0.00p then followed which was ignored. Things
then escalated and the News Shopper featured the story on its website, maybe in
its paper edition too but I wouldn’t know because it tends not to be delivered on wet days.
What interests me is not NSL being silly but Bexley council’s alleged (I’ve not
seen it) response to the News Shopper’s article. Apparently the council blamed
everything on NSL when as everyone who follows these things knows, parking
administration is now a joint Bexley/Bromley affair based in Bromley. It won’t
be NSL pursuing debts. The second excuse is probably false too.
NSL claims it will be penalised for their error but that all depends.
Some parts of the contract were revealed at a council meeting a few months ago and it did contain
details of penalties for mistakes which could be imposed on NSL. They were on a
sliding scale leading right the way up to the full amount of a motorist’s fine.
But there was a threshold and I clearly remember Bexley council saying that NSL
had got their mistakes down below that threshold. If that remains the case I
rather doubt that NSL would be penalised for their error in New Road.
I could be wrong and with no internet connection it is hard to check, but Press Offices
in Bexley are not strangers to untruths.