David Robertshaw must still pay parking fine issued by Sutton Council

David Robertshaw, 71, was told by the Environment and Traffic Adjudicators his appeal for being liable should be refused and the authority should cancel the charge.

However, this ruling was refused and the Clensham Lane resident is still required to pay the penalty charge notice (PCN) which is now £110.

The dad-of-four told Sutton Guardian on June 6: “I was just shocked when I got back to the car.

“I only moved it over, purely, to allow for emergency vehicles to get by. I didn’t think that I was doing anything wrong but obviously when I got back to the car there was a ticket displayed.

“I didn’t know the hard-and-fast rules about parking because I passed my test in 1964, but maybe people need to know this.”

The car parked in Surrey Grove. Photo: David Robertshaw

Mr Robertshaw parked his silver Ford in Surrey Grove last October on the way to taking his grandson, Brandon, to a football match in Royston Park last October.

When he returned he found a PCN which had been put on the windscreen of his car at around 10.45am that day.

After the granddad-of-four wrote to the council asking for it to be cancelled, he was told this could not be done.

In a letter Sutton Council said the penalty was issued because his car was parked with wheels on the footway, going against section 15 of the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1974 and as amended by section eight of the London Local Authorities and Transport Act 2008.

This happens when a vehicle is parked with one or more wheels over a footpath – or any part of a road other than the carriageway – and this include verges, regardless of surface and dropped kerbs, according to the council.

The car parked in Surrey Grove. Photo: David Robertshaw

Mr Robertshaw added: “For the reasons I gave, for the pure intentions of moving it [the car] out of the way because it’s a really narrow road, I came back the following day to measure the width of the road.

“I worked it out, from the width of the road, and I took the official sizes of the vehicles.

“Including the fire engine. There’s no way that a fire engine would have go through there.”

The council was correct to issue the fine, according to the Environment and Traffic Adjudicators tribunal in January, however it was recommended that the fine be cancelled.

But nearly eight months on the PCN has now risen to as much as £173 at one point, now lowered to £110, after he was last asked to pay it on June 3.

Mr Robertshaw added: “I feel like I’ve been treated like a child, like I’ve been chastised.

“I think the public must be aware that if they take it to a tribunal that Sutton Council can just disregard the adjudicator’s recommendation. That is a sheer waste of time.

“The adjudicator there is an individual for two parties to come together and Sutton Council just disregarded all of it.”

The car parked in Surrey Grove. Photo: David Robertshaw

A Sutton Council spokesman said that, as the PCN was correctly issued, the authority ‘must be consistent’ in its approach with all residents.

He added that Mr Robertshaw has since been spoken with, both on the phone and in person, to explain the situation but the fine is still enforceable.

If an authority opts to reject the recommendations laid out by the Environment and Traffic Adjudicators, then you will still have 28 days from the time of the decision to pay the charge, the London Councils body says.

Should payment not be made in that time then it can rise by a further 50 percent.