Barnet Council promise to respond to our claim on.....April Fool's Day

Barnet Council ask for more time to respond to our Claim

It's not often that Barnet Council and Brian Coleman are lost for words but our letter of claim seems to have stumped them.

We submitted our letter of claim on 11 March and Court rules dictate that Barnet Council should have responded by Friday the 25th. On the 28th, however, they wrote asking for more time. We've agreed that they can put in their response on 1 April.

Are Barnet Council using the time well to address our claim  properly or, better still, to reconsider their position? Or will we get a repeat of the nonsense we have had to date: that we are paying a small price for the privilege of living in a CPZ?

We will soon find out. But as much as ever, we need to keep the pressure up. Please:

Write to your councillor 
Print off and display our campaign poster (download it at the "Important Links" tab. 
Tell your friends and neighbours about our campaign.
And donate what you can.

Round 1 to Barnet CPZ Action

Barnet Council forced to postpone CPZ increases

after we expose defect in legal notice 

Yesterday we pointed out to Barnet Council that the legal notice they had published to implement the new CPZ charges was defective. 

As a result, the Council have acknowledged that planned increases won't be brought into force on 21 March. Instead the Council have to readvertise the notice and then wait another three weeks (taking us to around 14 April).   

Its a small victory of course - the real fight is still to come. But in the meantime, residents have a few more weeks to stock up on vouchers or  can renew their permit at the old price if it expires on 1 May. 

Legal action about to be lauched - but we need you to help

FIGHT THE RISE IN BARNET PARKING CHARGES

Newsletter No 2.

• Counsel has advised we have a strong legal case
• Sufficient money raised to begin the legal process, but we need more
• Take a look at our great campaign poster: http://imapnet.com/barnetcpz/barnet_cpz_flyer.pdf
• Please donate what you can. Cheques made payable to "Barnet CPZ Action" can be sent to 88 Summerlee Avenue, East Finchley, London N2 9QH    

 The campaign has got off to a flying start. Nearly 70 people turned up for the first meeting on 9^th March and by the end of the meeting nearly £3,000 had been donated to the seed fund. David Attfield explained the legal process and implications with great clarity and Nigel Linton ran through the potential costs. Volunteers came forward to help with fundraising, PR, lobbying, publicity and to provide witness statements for the case.

The case is being brought over a single legal challenge: that the council is not empowered to increase the parking charges for the express aim of raising revenue - which is exactly what they appear to have done.

A barrister who specialises in judicial reviews in the public sector has given his legal opinion on the grounds for the challenge and he rates our chances of success at between 65 and 75%, which means he considers we have a very good case.

Briefly, the process and related financial implications are as follows:

Stage 1: a formal notice of legal action was issued to Barnet on Friday. This gives them two weeks to respond or withdraw their plans.

Stage 2: an application will be made to the court to limit our liability for Barnet’s costs to £10,000. Estimated costs for this process are £2,000 – all of this seed funding was raised at the meeting.

Stage 3: if the court grants that limitation, with our costs estimated at £5,000  a fund of £15,000 will be needed to take our claim to court.  The claim must be issued by the end of March– that is in the next two weeks and the bulk of this money needs to have been raised or pledged before proceedings are started to ensure that David Attfield is completely financially protected.

120 people donating an average of £100 or 1200 donations of £10 is all we need.

Donations can be made by cheque (payable to “Barnet CPZ Action”) and delivered to No 88 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QH. A Paypal account will soon be available on the website: http://barnetcpz.blogspot.com .  Please ensure that the cheques have your name and address so that the funds can be re-distributed if we win the case.

Please get in touch if think you can help in any way.

Please have a look at our great campaign flyer!  Print it, display it, email it! We can also send you printed copies. Just email Barnetcpz@gmail.com
http://imapnet.com/barnetcpz/barnet_cpz_flyer.pdf