Barnet Council has applied to the High Court for a judicial review to overturn a decision by a Government body which said all its parking tickets were invalid.

An independent adjudicator from the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service (Patas) ruled in March that two tickets given to Hugh Moses, in Golders Green, last year were not issued in line with the Road Traffic Act 1991. The act states that the date of issue should be on the ticket, but the council's penalty charge notices (PCNs) only state the date of contravention.

Parking campaigner Barrie Segal claims the Patas ruling was a legal precedent which means that all council PCNs are unlawful. If the council loses the judicial review, everyone who receives a ticket could successfully appeal, potentially costing the council hundreds of thousands of pounds. The council claims its tickets state the correct information, but did admit it was looking at the wording of the PCNs.