England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions

Westminster, R (on the application of) v Parking Adjudicator [2002] EWHC 1007 (Admin) (22nd May, 2002)

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEENS BENCH DIVISION
ADMINSTRTIVE COURT

		Royal Courts of Justice Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
		22 May 2002

Mr Justice Elias:

1. In the two month period between the 19 April 2000 and 19 June 2000 eleven parking fine notices (more accurately described in law as “Penalty Charge Notices”) were issued against Mr. Alexander Woolfson by Westminster City Council, the claimant in these proceedings. He appealed against these notices to a Parking Adjudicator, who upheld the appeal and issued a direction whose effect was that no penalties could be imposed in respect of any of the penalty charge notices. The claimant sought a review of the decision but by a letter dated 29 November 2001, the Chief Adjudicator rejected that application. The claimant now seeks to challenge the determination of the Adjudicator by way of judicial review. Mr. Woolfson was served with the documents as an interested party but he has not wished to be represented before me.

The legislative background

2. Local authorities have broad powers, conferred by the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, as amended, to make orders prohibiting vehicles from parking in certain areas such as on yellow lines, and designating parking places for vehicles of different classes, with or without charge or permit. By the section 21 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970, local authorities are required to provide badges for motor vehicles driven by, or used for the carriage of, disabled persons. These used to be orange badges but they are now blue (the blue badge being the European replacement for the original orange badge). The Local Authorities’ Traffic Orders (Exemptions for Disabled Persons)(England) Regulations 2000 oblige local authorities to exempt vehicles with these badges from the effect of most of the restrictions and payment requirements imposed by orders made under the 1984 Act. However, there are certain areas which are excepted from those exemption provisions. They include the City of Westminster. It has its own system for providing privileges for disabled persons in the City of Westminster (Free Parking Places)(Disabled Persons)(No 1) Order 1994. Westminster provides a white badge to disabled people who live or work in its area and there are certain designated parking places specifically for them and, although to a significantly more limited extent, those with blue badges also.
3. In certain parts of the country, including London, the Road Traffic Act 1991 decrimalised breaches of orders made under the 1984 Act. It is no longer, therefore, a criminal offence for an individual in those areas to fail to comply with the terms of those orders. However, fixed penalties are imposed for breaches of the orders, the penalty depending upon the nature and gravity of the offence. Parking attendants are empowered to issue penalty charge notices (PCNs) colloquially known as “parking tickets”, to those who park illegally. The procedures which thereafter apply in relation to the handling and enforcement of parking penalties are set out in schedule 6. If payment is made within 14 days, then the charge is reduced. If it is not paid within 28 days, however, then a “Notice to Owner” may be served on the person appearing to be the owner of the vehicle. This gives a further 28 days in which to pay the penalty charge and if it is not paid within that period then that may lead to an increase in the charge. It is relevant to note that these stages are discretionary. There is no duty on the authority to enforce payment pursuant to a notice.
4. An owner who has received a “Notice to Owner” may make representations to the authority serving the notice if he wishes to challenge the imposition of the penalty. The relevant provisions dealing with this are found in paragraph 2 to schedule 6. Paragraph 2(1) is as follows:

“Where it appears to the recipient that one or other of the grounds mentioned in sub-paragraph (4) below are satisfied, he may make representation to that effect to the London authority who served the notice on him.”

5. Sub-paragraph 4 then sets out a number of grounds which the recipient of the notice may to draw to the attention of the authority. These include, for example, that he was never the owner of the vehicle; that the contravention did not occur; that the vehicle had been parked without his consent by someone else; that the order is invalid for some reason; and crucially in this case, (in sub-paragraph 4(f)):

“that the penalty charge exceeded the amount applicable in the circumstances of the case.”

6. Paragraph 3 of the Schedule provides that where the authority accepts that the ground in question has been established, then it will cancel the Notice to Owner. The effect of that is that the penalty does not have to be paid. If the representations are rejected then there is a further 28 days in which to pay the penalty, otherwise it will be increased. However, if the representations are rejected, then in addition, the owner has a further 28 days in which to lodge an appeal with the Parking Adjudicator. Paragraph 5(2) provides as follows:

“On an appeal under this paragraph, the parking adjudicator shall consider the representations in question and any additional representations which are made by the appellant on any of the grounds mentioned in paragraph 2(4) above and may give the London authority concerned such directions as he considers appropriate.”

By paragraph 5(3), the authority is obliged to follow the directions of the Adjudicator.

The facts

7. Mr. Woolfson has a number disabilities, the major one being spina bifida. He can only walk a limited distance and then only with the aid of crutches. It is not practical for him to travel by public transport, and the continuing use of taxis would be expensive. Of the eleven occasions when he was issued with a relevant parking ticket, nine of them were when he was in Westminster in the evening for social events, and two were in the daytime when he was attending job interviews. On each occasion he knew that he was parking where he was not ostensibly supposed to be, but no other appropriate parking spaces were available. Moreover, he took the view that the restriction on his liberty to park was an interference with his rights under Articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. He did not, therefore, think that the restrictions were legally enforceable against him.
8. Mr. Woolfson exercised his right to appeal to the Adjudicator. In that appeal, Mr. Woolfson submitted that the orders which sought to limit his right to park were indeed contrary to The European Convention on Human Rights, at least to the extent that they had that effect. The Adjudicator rejected these arguments and they have not been reopened before me.
9. However, Mr. Woolfson, through counsel, also submitted to the Adjudicator that under paragraph 2(4)(f) of the Schedule, to which I have made reference, the expression “the amount applicable in the circumstances of the case” did not, as the claimant submits, simply mean the amount of the penalty specified in the relevant order for the particular offence. Rather it referred to all the circumstances of the case, both those relating to the offence itself and any circumstances relevant to the offender. Accordingly, it was submitted that the Adjudicator was entitled, and indeed obliged, to take into account all mitigating circumstances in determining whether or not there should be either a reduction of the penalty or indeed no penalty at all. The Adjudicator accepted that submission and he concluded that in this case it would not be appropriate to impose any penalty. His reasons for doing so were summarised in his decision as follows:

“I accept that up until the receipt of the 31 July letter (whenever that was) Mr Woolfson held a genuine belief that the 1998 Act would support him in his claim to be able to park as he did in the individual circumstances of each occasion, and that he did only park thus when he found no alternative legitimate parking place. For these reasons I do not consider that in all the circumstances Mr. Woolfson should be liable to pay these penalty charges and I find that the penalty charge exceeded the amount applicable in the circumstances of each case. Accordingly I allow these appeals, using the powers above. I accede to Mr. Tugenhadt’s plea that I should grant Mr. Woolfson the equivalent of an absolute discharge.”

The parties’ submissions.

10. The claimant submits that the Adjudicator erred in law in his approach to paragraph 2(4)(f). Westminster’s primary submission is that the phrase “the penalty charge exceeded the amount applicable in the circumstances of the case” does not entitle the Adjudicator to take into account any consideration other than to satisfy himself that the penalty imposed is the appropriate one fixed by law for the particular offence. In effect, this means that as far as this particular provision is concerned, the Adjudicator’s role would be to exercise what is essentially the administrative task of checking the penalty as against the alleged infringement and satisfying himself that it is correct. Alternatively, the claimant submits that even if it is appropriate for the Adjudicator to have regard to some wider considerations, they do not extend to the two matters to which he had regard in this case. The claimant says that the genuine but mistaken belief by a car owner that he is not in breach of the law is not a relevant fact to take into account when determining whether a penalty should be imposed. Equally, it submits that the fact that Mr. Woolfson only parked when there was no other available space was an irrelevant consideration to take into account when determining whether to uphold the challenge against the penalty being imposed.
11. The main argument advanced by Ms. Smith, for the defendant, is that it would infringe certain provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights if the claimant’s submission as to the scope of the sub-paragraph were correct. The Adjudicator must be entitled under paragraph 4(2)(f) to take into consideration factors other than the simple question of whether the penalty was the one fixed in law for the particular offence. She submits that the effect of Article 6 of the Human Rights Convention, which confers the right to a fair trial, is that the Adjudicator must be entitled to consider all the merits of the case. Accordingly, she says that by section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998, it is necessary to construe the sub-paragraph of the Schedule in a broad way which enables that objective to be achieved.
12. I was taken to various authorities relating to Article 6 but in my view they provided no support at all for the argument advanced in this case. As far as this part of Ms. Smith’s submissions is concerned, it seems to me to be entirely misconceived. Article 6 is not concerned with the substantive law; it is designed to ensure that there are proper procedural safeguards wherever civil or criminal questions are being determined, to ensure a fair and just outcome. In this case it is accepted that the Adjudicator is an independent and impartial body, and he has power fully to review the case and consider whether the law has been properly applied to the facts. Anyone subject to the penalty can contend that it was greater than that permitted by law or alternatively that it should not have been imposed at all. In these circumstances I do not see how Article 6 assists the defendant in any way. There is nothing in Article 6 which forbids the imposition of fixed penalties as a sanction for certain breaches of the law: see Engel v The Netherlands [1976] 1 EHRR647 para.90. Of course, it is exceptionally possible for a penalty to be challenged by invoking the Convention, such as where it is suggested that it constitutes inhumane treatment under article 3, or where the penalty is imposed in the context of restricting someone’s rights under the Convention, in which case the sanction must be a proportionate one; see e.g. Arrowsmith v United Kindom (1981) 3 EHRR 218. But it is not, and could not be, suggested that any such principles are applicable here.
13. In my judgment, therefore, the only question is whether paragraph 2(4)(f) can be construed so as to justify the Adjudicator’s decision without any Convention considerations coming into play. But for one factor which caused me some reflection, (and on which I permitted counsel to make written submissions after the hearing) I would have thought that there could be no doubt about the proper construction of this provision. The phrase “the amount applicable in the circumstances of the case” would, in my judgment, naturally refer to the penalty which has been defined by law as the appropriate penalty in the particular circumstances. It presupposes that there is an identifiable penalty which actually applies and is capable of precise identification. If the intention had been to enable a wide variety of considerations to be taken into account when determining the appropriate penalty to be imposed, a different expression would have been used. The defendant’s construction amounts to reading the phrase as “such amount as ought to be applicable in all the circumstances of the case”. However, apart from that being a distortion of the language actually used, it is also wholly inconsistent with the very notion of fixed penalties: they would in truth simply be maximum penalties. There would be a discretion for the authority at the first instance, and thereafter the Adjudicator, to impose something less, depending on the particular factors of the case.
14. The consideration which caused me to reflect whether my firm initial view could be wrong is this. One can envisage unusual situations in which the individual admits the breach of the order but relies on extenuating circumstances. In some cases it would no doubt be widely considered to be harsh for the penalty to be imposed. For example, it may be that a husband parks the car illegally for a very short period whilst taking his wife, who is about to give birth, into a hospital. As the provisions stand, there appears to be no room under the grounds that may be raised in paragraph 2(4) for such considerations to be advanced in support of any reconsideration by the authority. Since the Adjudicator considers the same grounds, they obviously cannot be taken into account by him either. They plainly fall outside the other specified heads in paragraph 2(4) and accordingly if they do not fall within subparagraph (f), they cannot be considered at all within the terms of the paragraph itself.
15. In fact it transpires that there is central government guidance dealing precisely with situations of this nature. I have been shown a circular from the Department of Transport (Local Authority Circular 1/1995) which deals with this matter in respect of decriminalised parking outside London in the following terms:

“There are no grounds for making representations where the recipient of the NtO (Notice to Owner) acknowledges that a contravention occurred but argues that there were extenuating circumstance. However, local authorities should consider such cases on their merits. In order to ensure consistency of treatment local authorities should establish their own guidelines for dealing with such cases, balancing the need to show flexibility in dealing with exceptional cases against the need to enforce parking controls firmly in the wider public interest. Besides cancelling PCNs where there is satisfactory evidence to support a motorist’s case on the statutory grounds set out above, authorities should consider cancelling PCNs in the following interest:

(a) The parking meter or all nearby pay-and-display machines were faulty (except where the relevant TRO makes parking in such circumstances a contravention).

(b) The information on the PCN is inadequate or incorrect, due to an error by the parking attendant.

(c) There is satisfactory evidence that the vehicle was broken down at the material time and that reasonable steps were being taken to move it as soon as possible.

(d) There is satisfactory evidence that the penalty charge should be waived on well defined compassionate grounds.”

16. Similar observations are made in respect of parking in London in guidance produced by the Government Office for London, entitled “Traffic Management and Parking Guidance for London”, (February 1998). Paragraph 8.6 provides:

“Local authorities have a statutory duty to consider representations against the issue of Penalty Charge Notices (“PCNs”) and wheelclamping or removal action. The local authorities should exercise this duty in a fair and consistent way. They should also consider using their discretion to waive additional parking charges where there are extenuating circumstances…”

17. In addition I am informed that the Transport Committee for London, in its annual report for 1997/8 stresses that every authority has a duty to exercise its discretion in relation to parking penalties only to pursue charges if it is appropriate to do so. In this context it is well established that the purpose of traffic management orders is traffic management and not the raising of money.
18. This guidance has been followed in Westminster. On October 19, 1999 the Planning and Transportation Committee delegated power to the Director of Transportation:

“To cancel penalty charges where in the opinion of the Director of Transportation it would in the circumstances of a particular case, be inappropriate to pursue the notice further.”

I am informed that the Council has in fact adopted guidelines regulating the exercise of this discretion broadly reflecting the kinds of considerations referred to in the Department of Transport Circular.

19. The question arises wherein lies the source of the power to exercise this exceptional power to waive the penalty. Ms Smith says that it must lie in paragraph 2(4)(f) since there is no express power elsewhere. Accordingly, the adjudicator can likewise have regard to these considerations.
20. I reject this argument. In my view the power lies in the fact that Schedule 6 does not oblige the authority to enforce the penalty charge notice. It may serve a Notice to Owner where the penalty remains unpaid after 28 days- the language indicating that service is discretionary- and even if any representations made under paragraph 2(4) are rejected, there is still equally a discretion whether or not to serve the charge certificate. Finally, the authority would in any event retain a discretion whether or not to seek to take enforcement proceedings against someone who was refusing to pay.
21. By contrast, where the grounds referred to in paragraph 2(4) are established, the council is obliged to cancel the notice to owner. There is not discretion.
22. In short, there are two distinct categories of representation. First, there are the statutory representations which, if successful, oblige the authority to cancel the notice to owner and impose no penalty. There are then other representations which may cause the authority to choose not to exercise its discretion to pursue or enforce payment, but which do not oblige it to do so. No doubt in a very exceptional case that discretion could be challenged by way of judicial review if there were grounds for saying that it had been unlawfully exercised. However, the statutory power of the adjudicator is limited to the consideration of the matters which are statutorily set out in paragraph 2. It is only those matters which he can consider, and only those in respect of which he can issue directions. Accordingly, the wider mitigating or extenuating factors which may affect the exercise of the authority’s discretion when deciding whether or not to collect parking fines are not issues which the adjudicator can consider. They simply fall outside his province: his powers are limited by the statutory provisions.
23. For completeness I mention two further matters. Ms. Smith contended that before the adjudicator was given power to determine these appeals, any challenge against a parking fine would have been heard by the magistrates and they could have imposed a smaller fine than the fixed penalty. Even if that is right, in my opinion it would not support her argument so as to justify a distortion of the language in this case. There is no reason to suppose that Parliament intended the adjudicator to replicate the magistrates’ powers. Finally, even if the adjudicator were entitled to take into account wider considerations, I would be very surprised if, absent very clear statutory language, they could embrace the two factors relied upon in this case. However, in view of my conclusions on the scope of the adjudicator’s powers, that issue does not arise.

Conclusions.

24. Accordingly, I am satisfied that the adjudicator’s powers are limited in the way contended for by the claimant. It follows that he had no power to issue the directions which he did in this case and I quash them. I also declare that the adjudicator has no power to take mitigating circumstances into account when determining the amount of any payment payable by a person adjudged to be in contravention of a parking regulation.