A retired lawyer by the name of Robert Ransome has published his research into the planning consents or lack of them for all the private car parks he knows exist. It is clear that in most of the places no PP exists and is required by law so the arguments we have used here have been reinforced by his work and the ParkingPranksters commentary on the whys and wherefores. There is alos some clarification over whether retrospective permission can be given and the answer is NO so those who got caught out by Parking Eye's lies have recourse to remedy if they wish to choose it. the problem is that you have to get the local trading standards people interested and they rarely look into matters that are of little concern as far as things like public safety go but it is always worth getting a compaint lodged so they can collect the data for the future. The research is linked to the parking pranksters web page ( the dot com, not the blog) but is linked via the blogspot. My first fight with a private parking co was with Parking Eye over a NTK issued at Lidl in Addiscome Rd Selsdon more than 7 years ago. I took them on regarding the lack of PP and was helped by the fact that Lidl's main car park used to be the pub next door they flattend but failed to tell the Valuations Agency and the local council so a relatively easy victory it set the scene for how the parking companies hide behind the skirt tails of the landowner when they are threatened with having to pay business rates for being there ( Lild forgot to tell the council and VA that they had turned the pub into a car park so the land hadnt been assessed for business rates). I know the upshot was that PE just passed the buck and Lidl landed a bill for another £50k on their rates becasue they denied that it was a separate business. I suppose Lidl paid up as they could then give PE the boot if they desired to do so but my gut feeling is that the contract was so poorly worded they didnt fancy testing it. So, look up the relevant place and even if your ticket is from a hotel or residential development the law is the same, they need PP, even if it is given on the nod upon application.

The Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) has today published its updated guidelines on mental health and debt. The Good Practice Awareness Guidelines for Helping Consumers with Mental Health and Debt, now in a third edition, are designed to help creditors, councils, debt collection companies, enforcement agents and advisers. They help those people working with borrowers experiencing mental health conditions and debt, where their condition affects their ability to manage money. MALG Good Practice Awareness Guidelines for Helping Consumers with Mental Health Problems and Debt These voluntary Guidelines (Edition 1 November 2007, Edition 2 November 2009 and Edition 3 March 2015) indicate good practice in the treatment of individuals with debt and mental health problems and deal with best practice in the management of debt when a consumer is already in financial difficulty. Lending, Debt Collection and Mental Health 12 steps for treating potentially vulnerable customers fairly.

Hi all, I wrote a book last year and it was picked up by a publisher and was published in February of this year 2014 and has been doing pretty well, it is available worldwide. I run a Facebook page which went crazy popular and it has now got over 100,000 likes. It currently has about 125,000 likes. I was approached by a publisher to write a book on the subject of Wicca which I did. I have been on benefits since being made redundant last March 2013. When my book was published I had a case worker who I saw regularly to help me get back into work and I asked her about the book and what I need to do and she said I shouldn't worry it is more a case of paying tax on it at the end of the year as long as my savings or earnings don't go past £6000. Well the book hasn't made £6000 yet I get a monthly payment from the publishers for royalties of the sales and e-book sales, it started out as about £600 but has now whittled down to about £200 a month for the physical book and the e-book versions. . I am also on a work program called A4E which everyone knows about the book I even took a signed copy in for one of the advisers as she was interested in Wicca. I have always been totally open about the book with both the dole and A4E. I often told the person signing me on I had a book and they would say 'Oh good for you I will look it up' and nothing more said. I had a customer compliance interview with the benefits office and they asked to see my bank statements and other relevant information regarding the book which I showed them. The man interviewing me said they would regard the book as capital and didn't even take a photocopy of my bank statements just made a quick note of my earnings from the book. Today when i went to sign there was a garbled letter in the book that said I must fill in a B7 form which is for people who are working part time and to declare any hours worked or pay. The man seemed confused and went to ask the person who put the letter in my signing book, which he says he 'thinks' that is what i need to do, then they couldn't work out what is was i needed to do so they sent me to another woman who then says I need to fill out a B16 for self employment and they have made an appointment for me for Monday. I don't really want to sign or say I am working part time as i am not I am still available for work and am not working for any company, neither do I want to sign that I am self Employed as I am not I do not own a company or work for one I have owned. No one seems to know including myself what is to be done in these circumstances. I have always been told that my book is capital and it can make up to at least £3000 before it affects my benefit. Can anyone help please??

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/289342/tribunal-stats-oct-dec-2013.pdf For those of you who are interested! Quite sad to see a 79% drop in claims compared to 2012, and it certainly makes for interesting statistical reading. In summary, there are only now around 1,700 claims issued per month - down from 5,000 per month.

avoiding catalogue chaos 2 August 2012 the latest issue of Disability magazine features the ombudsman's money tips on avoiding problems with catalogue credit