'Parking Fines. You can reclaim them...' blog discussion

I don't get how the "time plate to which you refer" is incorrect. If they can be different on different sides of the road (harsh, but I believe it is true) then surely the plate was correct and somewhat irrelevant to the case in point?

Fantastic!

Nice to see they were prepared to admit they were wrong, and cancel the notice on that basis...

<sarcasm mode off>

Isn't it the case that every yellow line parking restriction should be covered by a yellow plate designating its hours of operation?

I had a parking situation in London not so long ago. We were visiting a friend near Marylebone and were travelling by car from Guildford. We'd parked many times before on the road outside her house, where the restrictions are residents only Monday-Friday. It was a Saturday night, and it was dark when we arrived. We parked up as usual and then went out for the evening. At 10am the next morning (Sunday), we came down from the flat ready to leave and THE CAR WAS GONE!

At first we thought it had been stolen, and then we noticed that the nearby signs had a sticker stuck over the normal time restrictions which now read "At Any Time". It makes you feel sick when you realise what has happened. Looking up and down the road, though, it was half empty. The cost... £60 fine and £200 (!!!) towing fee.

We actually took the case to appeal because we believed that the towing was disproportionate action given the fact that no obstruction was caused and the road was half empty so there was no parking problem. We weren't actually attempting to contend the fine (hands up admission that a mistake was made on our part).

Examining the times, the ticket had been placed at 9am and the tow occured at 10am. Not really much time to get in and prevent the towing. Actually, the parking guy we spoke to at the impound said that they are actually allowed to tow straight away and often the times on the ticket / tow form are altered to make it look more reasonable (more time between).

We questioned a few of the residents that morning. The vast majority didn't know about the change, and the one that did said that it had been put in place a couple of weeks earlier, with very little notification even for residents - so much for "grace periods"!

Anyway, to the point... we appealed the fine a couple of times to the council, and this was rejected. We then appealed directly to the independent adjudicator (instructions on how to do this were in the rejected appeal). This appeal was accepted. It was a long road (3-4 months) but we got the £260 back (even though we'd clearly stated that we were looking only for the £200 back).

I think the process for appeals goes as follows:
1. Send appeal.
2. Council waits maximum time and rejects appeal without examining the evidence.
3. Send independent appeal.
4. Council ignores correspondence from independent adjudicator until eventually you win by default.

So a positive outcome in the end. I think the worst thing about the whole situation was the insensitivity of the call centre staff when we phoned to find out where our car was:

Them: "It's in the park lane impound"
Us: "We don't live in London, where exactly is that"

<Series of, "do you know where xxx is?", "no">

Them: "You could always get a taxi!"
Us: "We can't really afford that now you've just fined us £260!"


We are now paranoid about checking signs anywhere we park, every time we visit, regardless of the parking situation last time. Often we check multiple times, it's quite sad! I think the problem in law sometimes is that people lose track of why that law is there. Is it to catch people who make a mistake, or to deter people from flagrantly flouting the rules (e.g. the motorist who gets fined for crossing the white line at traffic lights even though they didn't cross the junction itself - true story which thankfully ended in a court case and the motorist won!).

Anyway, just thought I'd share the experience that it is possible to win if you have a reasonable case - just don't be afraid to take it to the independent adjudicator!

Mark.