An attempt by councillors to give limo drivers ASBOs has hit an obstacle – the council’s own legal department. 
At a meeting in December, councillors voted through a motion to handout ASBO to limos repeatedly clogging up the narrow side roads in Islington whilst they waited for their clients to watch football matches at Highbury Stadium.
Residents’ associations had complained of up to 40 limos descending on the area on match days. But leaked emails seen exclusively by Islington Now show that the Council’s own legal department is blocking the move.
A message from Jan Hart, the Council’s service director for public protection said that the legal team could not “prove continuing offences and that the action is not causing harm sufficient to meet the ASBO test”.
The Council’s legal department say that they have not been provided with enough information on the limo drivers, such as their number plates, dates and times they are parked, and whether it is one company or individuals blocking the roads, to have grounds to give out ASBOs.
But councillors have said that the problem is self-evident. Theresa Debono, councillor for Highbury West, wrote in an email to the legal department: “We were amazed to witness the cheek of these drivers. They sat in their cars or outside their cars with the engines runningand as soon as a warden was spied, the drivers quickly moved on, to return to the same place a few minutes later.”
Another of the leaked emails, from Richard Greening, councillor for Highbury West, criticised the legal department for “finding reasons for inaction” instead of moving the matter forward.
Andy Hull, a Highbury resident standing for election as a councillor in Islington said the stalemate over the matter was another example of “rich people being able to buy their way out of following the law. Half of the drivers just sit there with their engines running doing a circuit of Jackson Road and Dunford Road.”
“It’s like watching some sort of nature programme, with the limo drivers as antelope at a watering hole and the traffic wardens as some kind of cheetah. When the limo drivers spot the traffic wardens they all rev their engines and disappear.”
Tej Randeva, owner of limousine brokerage company Limo Broker UK based in Cardiff said: “No one in my company would behave this way, these people are giving limo drivers a bad name. Still, if I was a driver getting an ASBO just for waiting for someone to watch the football, I’d be pretty hacked off.”
Image credit – Dina Rickman
