Legal Advice Taken On Parking Tickets

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32393, 4 September 1970, Page 1

Legal Advice Taken On Parking Tickets

The Ministry of Transport in Christchurch has no intention of deviating from its present policy in issuing parking infringment notices, despite a decision from a Christchurch Magistrate that the notices are defective.

Mr J. F. Thomas, the Christchurch traffic superintendent, said last evening, however, that the matter had been referred to the Ministry’s legal advisers in Wellington. Two charges of failing to pay parking infringement fees were dismissed in the Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday by Mr P. L. Molineaux, S:M. He ruled that the wording of the notices was defective and would probably require redrafting, and criticised the practice of leaving the notices under the windscreen wiper of the offender’s car, where they could be taken or could blow away.

Mr Thomas said that notices had been put under the windscreen wipers of vehicles for many years now and only in isolated cases had there been complaints- that a driver had not received the notice. Meanwhile, in Wellington, it has been stated by the Ministry that no prosecutions on parking offences will be withheld pending the investigation of the Magistrate’s decision.

It will be “business as usual” tomorrow for Auckland traffic officers in spite of the Magistrate’s finding, according to a Press Association message.