Saying it was their administration that issued the tickets!
Labour's attack on the Tory council's poor 'genuine' ticketing record has been slammed by the current council, who say they were issued under their 'dodgy' parking contract
Last year, 80 per cent of appeals against tickets issued by Ealing Council were upheld – the highest rate of successful parking appeals in west London.
It has now been revealed that 90% of the 1,458 successful appeals occurred under the parking contract negotiated by the previous Labour administration, which has now been renegotiated.
A Conservative council spokesperson said, "Labour’s contract paid bonuses to the contractor for issuing over 170,000 tickets whether or not the tickets were issued correctly.
"It gave an incentive to issue extra tickets with no penalties for the issuing of unfair tickets.
A new contract, negotiated by the Conservative administration late last year, removed incentives for issuing over an arbitrary number of tickets and penalises the contractor where they issue tickets incorrectly.
Cabinet portfolio holder for Transport, Cllr Vlod Barchuk, says there was little doubt as to why Ealing had issued so many false tickets last year. He said:
“This is yet another legacy inherited from the previous Council. Labour’s contract actively provided incentives to the contractor to issue dodgy tickets and victimise motorists. It’s no surprise that so many Ealing motorists have brought successful appeals. The new contract is fairer as it puts the emphasis on tickets being issued correctly.”
“It’s a particularly disgraceful piece of spin by Labour’s Transport spokesman, Cllr Bassam Mahfouz, to have suggested last week that the high number of wrong tickets issued last year was our fault. At the same time he tried to take credit for stopping the tram, when Cllr Mahfouz and his party had actively supported it. How shameless and dishonest can you be?”
October 2, 2007