Issue - meetings

This report sets out the legal and financial implications of making automatic repayments for the Lendal Bridge Penalty Charge Notices following the motion passed at full Council on 11^th December 2014.

Resolved:  That Cabinet agree to:

i)          Instruct officers to instigate a process to automatically provide written notification to all persons issued with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) (who has not received a payment) in respect of Lendal Bridge advising them of the online refund request process to contest their PCN.

ii)        Confirm that the deadline for submitting a claim under the scheme will be 31^st December 2015.

iii)       Approve the use of £150,000 of New Homes Bonus (from 2014/15 allocation) to fund the administrative costs of making repayments.

Reason:      (i)     To ensure the means of contesting the PCN is widely communicated and all reasonable attempts have been made to inform persons issued with a PCN of the process.

(ii)   To provide certainty for everyone involved and ensure financial accountability and good governance of the process.

(iii)   To provide appropriate budgetary provision for the costs of administering the refund scheme.

Members considered a report which set out details of the motion passed by Council on 11 December 2014 in respect of the automatic repayment of Lendal Bridge Penalty Charge Notices.

Consideration was given to the following options and, in particular the legal and financial implications arising from each:

Option 1:  Make arrangements for the automatic notification of everyone who was issued with a PCN (who has not yet received a payment) at their last known address to advise them of the extended process, whilst maintaining the current Lendal Bridge refund request process and promote an extended deadline date through the appropriate media channels. 

Option 2:  Automatic payments – seek out and pay back individuals without requiring any validation of their details.

Option 3:  Maintain the current Lendal Bridge refund request process and promote the extended deadline date through the appropriate media channels.

Members noted that an extension of the deadline for repayment and further promotion of the current refund process was likely to increase the administrative costs by approximately £100-150k.

The Cabinet Member confirmed that Members had taken note of the issues raised by residents in relation to the Lendal Bridge PCN’s which had resulted in agreement to the repayment of the fines.

Following further discussion it was

Resolved:  That Cabinet agree to:

i)          Instruct officers to instigate a process to automatically provide written notification to all persons issued with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) (who have not received a payment) in respect of Lendal Bridge advising them of the online refund request process to contest their PCN.

ii)        Confirm that the deadline for submitting a claim under the scheme will be 31^st December 2015.

iii)    Approve the use of £150,000 of New Homes Bonus (from 2014/15 allocation) to fund the administrative costs of making repayments. ^1.

Reason:      (i)     To ensure the means of contesting the PCN is widely communicated and all reasonable attempts have been made to inform persons issued with a PCN of the process.

(ii)   To provide certainty for everyone involved and ensure financial accountability and good governance of the process.

(iii)   To provide appropriate budgetary provision for the costs of administering the refund scheme.