Author Topic: Incompetence: CCBC (and other Public Bodies and Statutory Undertakers...)  (Read 115952 times)

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Offline Dave

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Good points.  DVLA's systems contrast with those of TV Licensing whose regular persecutions and unwanted mail shots can ultimately result in prison sentences even for those on minimal income.  Perhaps DVLA licensing should learn from the TV people - after all, who provides intel on licence dodgers other than the point of sale of a TV set. 

At one time the police used to deal with failures to display and failures to have Excise Licences but this is yet another area where they have relinquished any responsibility or interest.

The NW Chief Constable is about to retire tomorrow, in a press interview he said that prioritising where to put resources when you have had a £30m reduction in funding is an ever increasing problem.
I would hazard a guess that, irritating though it is to find that some people are dodging their road tax, there must be bigger problems to spend police budgets on. Doesn't mean they are not interested though.
Why not just go back to displaying a tax disc? Maybe that would help solve the problem.

Offline Hugo

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Dave, that is a good point about going back to the paper tax discs but the trouble with Government, be it local or central they would just not admit that they had made a mistake.
OK it would cost them £10 million to do it but the fact that they would save over £100 million doesn't seem to fit in with their way of thinking.
I've read up a lot about the DVLA recently and and they are claiming a lot of credit for tracking tax dodgers on ANPR cameras but that credit should go to the Police who have had that crackdown, although that was  last year.
The Police are not interested in chasing road tax dodgers because they are under resourced and have more important things to deal with.
A lot of road tax dodgers declare their cars SORN but in actual fact drive them on the road knowing full well that the chances of being caught by the Police are nearly zero.
Enforcement of road tax should be simple as the computers tell the DVLA on day one when the tax is out of date. A warning letter should be issued 14 days later then after a further 14 days the enforcement procedure should be followed up.    It's not rocket science so why is the DVLA  so ineffective in its job?


Offline Ian

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Substitute CCBC for DVLA in that last sentence and it continues to make sense.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.

Offline SteveH

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Many years ago, the system below was brought up in a similar discussion, a system I agreed with at the time, and it still seems to make sense today.

"Vehicle licencing was first introduced as a road fund licence; a device for gaining income for the construction and maintenance of roads. Since there is no longer a direct relationship, one could argue that road tax could be abandoned and fuel tax increased. People with small cars and low mileage would gain by this and those doing high mileages and with big cars would pay proportionately more. "    REF.  https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-7781,00.html

Offline DVT

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Seems DVLA may be checking for untaxed cars as this was patrolling the streets where I live this morning - it had a screen on the dashbioard which was recording something.

Offline Hugo

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At least the van is taxed      ;D       If you speak to the driver send him to Colwyn Bay, that'll keep him busy for a bit.

Offline DVT

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What got me was the statement on the back that says "This vehicle stops suddenly" !!!

Offline norman08

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Walking up our way this morning one car tax 1 st October 2014 / mot 24 May 2018 , clamped and sticker ,car behind it tax 1st may 2018 they must have been out when van came .

Offline DVT

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Having just returned from my morning stroll for a newspaper I have spotted a van in one of the roads that the DVLA van patrolled yesterday - the van has been clamped.  Checking the van's details I see that tax ran out April 2018. MoT is until next year ... but it is a diesel and shown as 0kg nasty things, so possibly is zero tax anyway!  I know you still have to re-tax it even though zero but what would be the back-payment due?!!!

It does seem that the authorities are taking action now, but wouldn't displaying a tax disc make things so much easier, both as reminder to the owner and for everyone else to check?

Offline Hugo

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It does seem that the authorities are taking action now, but wouldn't displaying a tax disc make things so much easier, both as reminder to the owner and for everyone else to check?

It makes perfect sense DVT and I'm glad to see that the DVLA  is active and about in this area and I hope that they catch the driver whose tax expired on the 31st October 2017.

Displaying a tax disc is certainly a deterrent but members of the public should not have to report untaxed vehicles, after all they are only reporting what the DVLA know already.
On the day that  the tax has expired the information appears on the DVLA records so from that day on their computer should be setting in motion a plan for recovery of the outstanding tax.
In North Wales they are not dealing with problems that you might find in the inner cities.   They know the cars that are untaxed, where they are located and should be clamping them as soon as possible to ensure that they are not driven on the road

Offline Hugo

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DVLA's systems contrast with those of TV Licensing whose regular persecutions and unwanted mail shots can ultimately result in prison sentences even for those on minimal income.  Perhaps DVLA licensing should learn from the TV people - after all, who provides intel on licence dodgers other than the point of sale of a TV set. 

At one time the police used to deal with failures to display and failures to have Excise Licences but this is yet another area where they have relinquished any responsibility or interest.

I agree with Cambrian's comments and some years ago I had a good chat with a person prosecuting on behalf of the TV licensing people and know that Cambrian's comments are spot on.
The DVLA is enabling at least £100 million per year of public money to go uncollected and if this was a private business it would have gone bust years ago.   

Both the Police and DVLA  know from day one who the offenders are and where they live so really there is no need for NLS  vehicles to go around looking for offending cars.     All they need to do is call at the property and deal with the offenders there and then.
Will it ever happen?   Perhaps not

Offline Ian

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Two massive examples of incompetence: one CCBC the other Welsh Water.
On the two busiest weeks of the year for visitors, the Marine Drive around the Orme has been closed off at the West Shore End, stopping the 'train' and Coach operating on it.  CCBC say it's 'rockfalls' and they have to clear a gully, which has now become full. Wonder if it ever occurs to anyone in CCBC to suggest a proactive approach of regular clearing?

Meanwhile, Welsh water has chosen the same two weeks to create mayhem at the Black cat end of the A470 by installing traffic lights between Snowdonia Nurseries and the Shell garage, causing huge queues. You couldn't make it up.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.

Offline SteveH

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"Meanwhile, Welsh water has chosen the same two weeks to create mayhem at the Black cat end of the A470 by installing traffic lights between Snowdonia Nurseries and the Shell garage, causing huge queues. You couldn't make it up."

I passed through the other day, and was amused to see the traffic light operator in his deck chair !, with his emergency vehicle (golf buggy) at the ready, in case he had to walk somewhere ?         ???

Offline DVT

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I am led to believe that the "road works" near Black Cat are to allow for the lay-by to be full of water tankers with parking out onto the main road.  They are there to take drinking water from the new reservoir that is underground near the road leading to Betws-yn-Rhos - an installation that was carried out only a few years ago ... so if they have to drain it by blocking the A470 don't you think it is something they should have thought about at the planning stage?

Offline Cambrian

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Re: Incompetence: CCBC (and other Public Bodies and Statutory Undertakers...)
« Reply #179 on: August 01, 2018, 08:25:10 am »
Looking around the Welsh Water website, it seems there are supply shortages in the Waunfawr area and water is being tankered there from other parts of North Wales, this tends to support what Glan Conwy folk have been told by men on site.