Vehicle Removal Services

Description

The provision of vehicle removal services. A requirement had been identified for the Authority to take action against persistent evaders - a persistent evader is defined as where the registered keeper of a vehicle has three or more recorded contraventions and the PCNs are not paid, represented or appealed against within the statutory time limits; or their representations and appeals have been rejected but the penalty charge notices remain unpaid despite actions taken by enforcement agents. It is now Authority policy that a persistent evader’s vehicle can be removed following the issue of a further penalty charge notice when parked in contravention of the Traffic Management Act 2004. There are currently a small number of vehicles which have many unpaid PCNs some have no registered keeper and continue to be issued with PCNs. In order to provide a degree of scale there are (as of January 2019) 34 vehicles with 10 or more outstanding PCNs. This situation causes concern for the safety of other highway users, including pedestrians and it also means that the Authority’s normal debt recovery procedures cannot be implemented. Subsequently alternative measures are justified in an attempt to prevent further unsafe parking activities and to assist in the recovery of the debts. For the purposes of this quotation it is estimated that 5 vehicles will be removed per year. Whist the policy enables the removal of vehicles for other reasons it is proposed to effectively trial this for persistent evaders for 12 months; then, subject to review by Authority officers, extend this to the other categories of vehicles listed below:- • Fraudulent use of disabled persons’ parking blue badges or an article that purports to be a disabled blue badge; • Parked in a disabled person’s parking bay without displaying a disabled blue badge; • Parked using a fraudulent Isle of Wight Council permit, voucher, scratch card or pay and display parking ticket; inclusive of cashless parking sessions and virtual permits; • Parked in a manner that causes serious obstruction to emergency services and other road users. Keywords: vehicle, removal, storage