An east London tenant ordered to pay £120 in parking fines to his council landlord has lost an appeal taken all the way to the House of Lords.
Five law lords have unanimously upheld the validity of a residents’ parking scheme operated by Hackney council on the Woodberry Down Estate. The lords threw out claims by tenant Marcel Akumah that local authorities were not entitled to introduce such parking schemes by resolution, rather than in the form of a bylaw.
Lord Carswell held that it was “inherent” in the council’s statutory powers for the management of housing estates that parking should be regulated in order to prevent road congestion and to ensure that residents had allocated spaces.
“Those factors are clearly capable of affecting the amenity of life for the residents and their access to, and enjoyment of, their houses and flats on the estate,” he said. “I find no difficulty in accepting that safeguarding and improving that amenity, and facilitating that access and enjoyment, are proper functions of a council managing a housing estate.”
Under the scheme introduced by Hackney council in 1994, parking was permitted only in designated bays and only if a resident’s or visitor’s permit was displayed in the vehicle.
Akumah’s car was clamped on three separate occasions between January and April 2000, and was eventually towed away. He claimed that the council had refused to issue him with a resident’s parking permit because he was in arrears with his rent.
In February 2001, District Judge Wright, sitting in Shoreditch County Court, dismissed his application for an order that the council repay £120 in fines, together with damages for the wrongful detention of his car. He held that, on all three occasions, Akumah had parked without a valid voucher.
Akumah v Hackney London Borough Council House of Lords (Lord Hoffmann, Lord Scott of Foscote, Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, Baroness Hale of Richmond and Lord Carswell) 3 March 2005.
Sibghat Kadri QC and Ezekiel Pipi (instructed by Clifford Watts Compton) appeared for the appellant; Andrew Arden QC and Christopher Baker (instructed by the solicitor to Hackney London Borough Council) appeared for the respondents.
References: EGi Legal News 04/03/05
