Boris Watch

Oh dear.  Ealing Council has been nasty to the motorist.

Residents are to be refunded for tickets issued incorrectly after the council was ordered to pay £750 in costs to a bus company it repeatedly fined wrongly.

Anyone who has paid a ticket issued at one of six wrongly marked box junctions in Ealing junctions since last Thursday, October 30, will be paid back, following the ruling that the Council is to remove them. The Council is refusing to give refunds on tickets issued before that date.

Classy.  Who’s the car-hating apparatchik with his hands in your wallet they put forward to explain why it’s all Labour’s fault:

Cabinet Member for Customer and Community Services, Councillor Phil Taylor, said: “Following a meeting with the Department for Transport in June we understood that double width yellow boxes could be placed at the T-junctions, as long as there was sufficient traffic flow in the area. We provided additional data and fully expected the DfT to confirm they were happy. Now eight months after we originally approached them, they appear to be suggesting this is not the case, but have still failed to provide us with a report setting out their position, despite repeated requests. “It is ridiculous that it has taken the Government department which sets the rules so many months to interpret its own manual and we still have not received a definitive response. This just underlines how unclear the regulations are.”

Perhaps, and this is just a suggestion, you shouldn’t have gone ahead and put the road markings down and fined people if it was unclear, then?  I’m only surprised he hasn’t blamed Ken Livingstone, tree huggers and overpaid TfL fat cats yet.  As far as I can see it’s Ealing Council who are bang to rights and not accepting responsibility, which is a good role model for the kids there, Phil.  Perhaps Boris will put you in one of his rehabilitation facilities to teach you how to be a Good Chap and a Decent Fellow – after all, as the Adjucator said:

I think the council has got it wrong. I am awarding costs on the grounds the council has been wholly unreasonable

What with this, Westfield and the £2m of council funds stranded in Icelandic bank Glitnir, it’s not a great time to be an Ealing resident.

[h/t to a mate at work who'd like his money back, please]

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