Bah! Community policing! Billy?s in disgruntled mode,
I have lived in my little terraced house, in a little terraced street, (seven houses) that goes to nowhere, for 20 years. In all that 20 years I have never parked my car anywhere else but in the narrow back street, as do a lot of my neighboughs. When a car is parked there, you cannot get another vehicle past, unless you are parked hard up against the wall, then it is a tight squeeze, but you can get a car past.
The front street is just as bad, (although a bit wider) but when two cars park opposite one another, the road is totally blocked, the residents know this, and accept it, we think nothing of having to go out and move our cars to let other folk in or out, tis life around here as we live it!
This morning I found a FPN stuck on my windscreen, between the hours of 00.00 and 0405hrs my vehicle was deemed to be an ?unnecessary obstruction, fair do?s, it is declared sorn, (has been for the last 14 months) and is technically deemed to be on a ?highway??? , but this is where my logic gets itself confused, this particular car has lived in this back-street for the last 10 years as have its predecessors before it, no-one has ever had a ticket, as there are no parking restrictions of any kind, and conversely, no signage declaring it a clearway! In 1993 I bought a 16ft boat on a trailer, which I wanted to keep there also, so I enquired at the local station, and duly a pair of policemen arrived to assess the situation, after many admiring looks and comments, they stated they had no issues with me keeping it there unless someone complained. Until 12 months ago this boat lived there happily for 13years! No tickets, obstruction, or complaints.
Now new miss plod in town, has slapped me a ticket for obstruction, (bet she laddered her tights on it while skulking around in the dark), whilst at that precise time there is one of those builders 1tonne bags of sand, and several bags of builders rubble not 3 doors up the row, (not lit or coned) and this wasn?t deemed to be an obstruction, so was not ticketed by her, and furthermore just to annoy me further, the front street was totally blocked from 17.30 last night ? 0900hrs this morning, yet she didn?t ticket these vehicles as obstructions.
Rant nearly over now, but in a small town, in a tiny insignificant corner like this, I would have thought that in the interests of good community policing that she might have had the decency to knock on the door (during daylight!) and just say ?move the car before I ticket you!
Just reading the evening paper, during these hours while she was protecting the public from a sorned car, there were ?a burglary? ?a car theft? and ?a stone was thrown through someone?s front room window?
Community policing priorities! ? Bah!
still, at the end of the day my own fault - bah again!
billy
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is this an unadopted road or adopted by the council?
if unadopted then its private land
any street lighting?
what do your deeds say?
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is this an unadopted road or adopted by the council?
if unadopted then its private land
any street lighting?
what do your deeds say
Doesn't make a difference for the obstruction (in the absence of any other facts by the OP), if the public had access at the material time it can be deemed to be a "road" under the Road Traffic Act with enough caselaw around the statute law to make it clear.
Also there's case law surounding Obstruction offences, Wadev.Grange and the DPPv.Jones in 1999 may be worth having a look at, also Nagey v. Weston
May make a difference for the SORN, if this road is maintainable under public expense or not - but it's unclear whther you've been pinged for that.
It seems a bit odd the whole thing, may be worth contesting it on the grounds that the OP mentioned alone. Not legal advice by the way.
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Still smarting from my ticketing this morning, and not wanting to incur the wrath of plod again, I decided to visit the station and politely ask just exactly why after 10 years my car had suddenly morphed into an obstruction.
Issuing officer was actually there, and I had a word with her,
PC. ?we were called to an emergency incident at the bottom of your street, and finding the front street blocked, we tried to go down the back, but were obstructed by your vehicle?
ME. ?so its not just because its sorn then?
PC. ?No, its was just because of the situation, we couldn?t get through, and had to proceed on foot ? we would have had to ticket any vehicle obstructing us, sorn or not?
ME. ?so why didn?t you ticket the vehicles blocking the front street as well??
PC. ?I?m afraid I don?t have time to discuss this further. I advise you to respond to the ticket?
Closes hatch and disappears!
O.K as stated earlier I could have lived with being £60 poorer and disgruntled, if it was a sorn- based penalty, then it was technically my own fault. (the back-street is ?council? owned, but is not usually used as a ?public highway? or ?thoroughfare?)
But a few things here don?t seem right,
There was no ?incident? in the street early this morning! (fact).
? we would have had to ticket any vehicle obstructing us, sorn or not? ? does this mean that although there are no parking restrictions on this back-street, any car legally parked in this or on any similar street could be classed as an obstruction on the whim of a police officer who doesn?t fancy walking a few feet?.
?proceed on foot? = I live 2 doors from the bottom of the street, distance to ?proceed on foot? width of two terrace houses = 60ft (really poor excuse!!) ( its further from the street up the backyard to the door!!)
Me knows this was just a pack of lies, to try and gloss over her shabby policing! But it makes me mad just knowing I cant do a thing about it!
Billy, (£60 poorer. And even angrier at being lied to!)
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I suspect anyone parked on the highway could be done for "obstruction" should they want to push it.
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Is it right that parking on the highway is a concession, not a right? If asked by a police officer, you must move a vehicle parked on the highway, regardless of the presence/lack of yellow lines, restrictions etc.
The bit that seems strange is that she did not ask first. You could check with your local authority to see the status of the section of road.
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Good point Martin. Any car on the highway can be technically deemed to be an obstruction.
Wondering how the OP knew for a fact that there wasn't an incident that the Police had to get to, bearing in mind the three hour gap in the "between times" it seems feasible that the Police arrived at say 1.00am and then ticketed at 4.00am after the incident was over. Seen that happen before, Fire Service aren't as fussy, I remember them dragging cars out of their way with no care as to damage caused in a narrow terrace. If the incident was part of the Police evidence they would know that that information would be part of any potential prosecution case later on - I'd question them on that, they are bright enough to expect that.
I'd keep quiet about the SORN thing, if you are on a council maintained "road" and have SORN'd it then you could be in trouble, the whole point of a SORN is for a vehicle being er...Off Road (the OR bit). If the car was SORN'd the Police would have been within their rights to lift it and take it away and in reality they could have got your car taken away for the obstruction. How come it's a £60.00 ticket, that would have been the norm for a 3 pointer but not for an non-endorsable Unnecessary Obstruction ticket. I'd get you car off the road before they come back with a cob on and chuck that and all the other associated offences at you.
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...£60 poorer ..
you got off lightly. think and thank yourself lucky.
Keeping or using an unlicensed vehicle on a public road is an offence which could result in a penalty. A false declaration that a vehicle is off the road will risk prosecution and a maximum penalty of up to £5000 and two years imprisonment.
in addition, you need insurance to keep the car on the road. so that is another law you weere breaking.
if i were you, i would stop whingeing and go and profusely thank the officer for being lenient on you.
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Whoa hang on a mo chaps!
Billy is disgruntled at the ticket, and angry at being lied to! I?m not ?whingeing? at the penalty, I have held my hand up from the ?off? and admitted it is my own fault, and yes, I know that if you read the ?small print and italics? in the declaration on the sorn form, that it is a pretty daunting penalty they could impose!
What really annoys me is the fact that although I know I was probably ticketed for obstruction because the car is sorn. (which is why the cars in the front street were not ticketed ), the officer even when asked, still felt she had to lie to me! why?
Could it be because policing in this town is supposedly almost dependant on information gathered by public spirit, sneaking around in the dead of night gathering herself easy ?brownie points? like this, doesn?t make for good community relations, who knows how many other ?police friendly? citizens she may have outraged last night, and a good ?I only did it cos it was an emergency? fairytale, goes along way to making her shabby policing ethics seem almost credible and worthwhile.
Billy. (Still £60 poorer, with only bread n water to look forward to next week,- no beer! there goes my benefit money!) harsh punishment!
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you have my sympathy billy25 you did what you could
i also tend to agree with your thinking
you have been snitched up
probably by someone you think of as a friend
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I'm with you Pug.
Sorn to me means not taxed.
People don't Insure sorned vehicles do they?
So Billy could also be facing:
No Excise Licence ( a nasty from dvla summons yet to come)
Fail to display a current Licence
Using a vehicle without Insurance.
....which means mega bucks and points?????????
dvd
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It's sad but that's what people are like now.
I was delivering furniture on a council estate a few days ago and in one section there was a fishing boat on a trailer parked in the road, and this man's garden and the end portion of the road was stacked with lobster pots and fishing gear. Not causing an obstruction to any reasonable sensible person. But it's only a matter of time before some busybody has a go and starts getting it all cleared away, in the interests of "access" or health & safety or some other excuse.
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What really annoys me is the fact that although I know I was probably ticketed for obstruction because the car is sorn.
I really don't understand why you are upset. SORN stands for what exactly? Statutory ***OFF ROAD*** notification.
You were on the road. My car is SORN, while I try and sell it, and it is parked on my driveway.
Put it in your garage, put it on your drive, sell it, do whatever you like.
But don't say it's off-road when it's not.
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I don't understand why you're convinced the reason for your ticket is the SORN. If that's the case, then why didn't she just do you for the SORN?
I accept that it's strange that you got ticketed and no-one else did, but I think you're barking up the wrong tree as to the answer.
In fact, if it is due to the SORN, then maybe you should be thanking her? Maybe she decided to give you the £60 as a warning, rather than going straight to doing you for SORN, no insurance and the rest.
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how do you know a neighbour hasn't complained.............the officer wouldn't tell you that, they're likely to 'spin you a yarn' to protect the identity of the complainant.........in case you were the type to remonstrate with your neighbour
can't think of many places where the old bill have the time to deal with stuff like this off their own back down a side road
the other possibility is have you or a family member done anything untoward recently...e.g. failed to stop for police, disqualified driving etc...........that's a sure fire way to ensure quality, close policing of your vehicles
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