Fixed Penalty Parking Notices for Taxis in Chippenham

Thank you for your email dated 20th December 2009 which has been passed to
me to process under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act
2000.

I understand your request to be concerning parking penalty notices for
taxis in Chippenham, in particular:

1. How many fixed penalty notices were issued for taxis illegally
parked in New Road, Chippenham for the period 1^st April 2008 - 31^st
March 2009?

Your request is being considered and you will receive the information
requested within the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by
the Freedom of Information Act 2000, subject to the information not being
exempt or containing a reference to a third party.

When we have located the information, if there is a fee for providing this
information, I will write with a fees notice to advise you how much the
council will charge to respond to your request. I may also contact you if
the request needs to be clarified; this is to ensure that we provide you
with the information you require.

Please note that some information you have requested may not be provided;
this will only be information that can be withheld by law. In most cases
the reasons will be explained to you along with your copy of the
information. If at any time you no longer require all or part of this
information or if your requirements change please let us know as soon as
possible.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Mullens

Admin & Projects Co-ordinator

Wiltshire Council

County Hall, Trowbridge BA14 8JN

Tel: 01225 713379

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I refer to your email dated 19^th December, which has been passed to me
for processing under the Freedom of Information Act. The information held
by Wiltshire Council has been collated and the following response is
provided:

The enforcement of parking contraventions is a quasi judicial process. All
Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) that are issued to vehicles are subject to a
full appeals process including the use of an independent parking
adjudicator at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal who appointed by the Lord
Chancellor. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal comes under the supervision of
the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council which has established a
Framework of Standards for Tribunals which states that tribunals should:

o Be independent
o Provide open, fair and impartial hearings
o Be accessible to users
o Focus on the needs of users
o Offer cost effective procedures
o Be properly resourced and organised
o Work with first tier decision makers to improve the "end to end"
experience for the user.

Both parties, Councils and Appellants, have a right to a personal hearing,
but alternatively may agree to have a postal hearing and, more recently a
hearing by telephone. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal is also actively
encouraging councils to provide the facility for appellants to appeal on
line. The Tribunal is paid for by a subsidy on every PCN issued in England
and Wales.

Over time the Traffic Penalty Tribunal has worked with councils in England
and Wales to develop best practice guidelines, including the use of
observation times. Wiltshire Council is committed to adhering to the best
practice guidelines and developing a fair, transparent and professional
service. Therefore all Civil Enforcement Officers, sometimes known as
traffic wardens or parking attendants, employed by Wiltshire Council
observe all vehicles before the issue of a PCN to ensure that they are not
undertaking an exemption under the current Traffic Regulation Order in the
location before the PCN is issued. The observation period is not mandatory
but is recommended within best practice unless it is clear from
the initial observation that the vehicle is not exempt.

To allow the PCN to be enforced it must be served. To serve a PCN it must
be affixed to the windscreen of the vehicle in contravention or sent by
post to the registered keeper. However, similar levels of evidence are
expected in both cases, including photographs if possible. If a vehicle is
not stationary or moves away as soon as approached by a Civil Enforcement
Officer it is highly unlikely that the PCN would be deemed valid by the
adjudicator as the contravention is no longer occurring and the aim of
reducing instances of illegal parking has been achieved.

Civil Enforcement Officers regularly patrol New Road and attempt to issue
PCNs to Taxi's who are parked in contravention. However, as noted above,
if the vehicle moves away the PCN cannot be issued. It is not possible at
this time to constantly station a member of staff in this location as if
there are no taxi's stopping the staff member is not helping to reduce
congestion levels and ensure turnover of the short stay parking areas.

In addition to the enforcement undertaken by Parking Services we also work
with the Taxi Licensing team to place penalty points onto the licence of
any drivers who are seen to park in contravention on a regular basis. If a
driver collects over 12 penalty points their license can be suspended or
even permanently removed.

Further work is ongoing with officers of the council to develop a policy
on ways to work with the taxi trade to reduce inconvenience and danger to
other road users during periods of time when they are not engaged on a
fare. This work will look at the current locations of taxi ranks in
Wiltshire and try to develop locations that allow both the taxis to ply
for hire close to the locations where members of the public want them and
less inconvenience for other road users. Additionally Wiltshire Council
works with Wiltshire Police to try and ensure the safety of all road
users.

As explained above, the evidential requirements for issuing PCNs to
vehicles prohibit the issue to any vehicle that is moving. Therefore 2
PCNs have been issued to Taxi's on New Road in Chippenham during the
previous financial year that had evidence to the standard required.

The council has not withheld any information in relation to this request
under the exemptions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I hope the
information received is what you were expecting. However if you are
unhappy with what has been provided, you can raise a complaint under the
Council's Freedom of Information Complaints Procedure (enclosed) or you
can contact the Information Commissioner's Office at Wycliffe House, Water
Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, 01625 545745.

Information supplied under the Freedom of Information Act and/or
Environmental Information Regulations will be subject to copyright
protection under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Information
can be re-used for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes,
for private study, or for news reporting and reviews, without requiring
formal consent. However, if you wish to re-use the information for
commercial purposes, including publishing, you are required to seek the
permission of Wiltshire Council. Permission to re-use copyright
information is granted in the form of a licence.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Mullens

Admin & Projects Co-ordinator

Wiltshire Council

County Hall, Trowbridge BA14 8JN

Tel: 01225 713379

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