Parking Ticket Appeals successes and failures

Nearly three years ago we were issued with a private parking ticket on a university campus. The university hired out the premises for ballet classes. Building work was going on so the normal car park was very limited and the car park usually full. The entrance to the campus was on a busy main road with no pavement, so it was impossible to walk there with a 6 year old.

For many weeks of the building work, the security guard directed parents to park in a small staff car park opposite the dance studio, saying he felt the other car park was dangerous for such young children with all the building works. There were very few marked bays available but lots of space around which the guard directed us to park in. Sometimes the guard was not on the entrance gate, but he had made it clear that we could park there. Then, one week, we popped in to collect our daughter, came out less than 5 minutes later, and found that we had been issued with a ticket. We found the security guard and his words were "don't worry, just write a letter to the company and it will be fine".

Our letter of appeal highlighted the follwing points-
That the uni were hiring out the premises to parents of young children but providing no safe parking facility
That the security guard had directed us, week after week, to park there
That the week after the ticket was issued we were told by the security guard that an "official" directive had been passed to let dance school users park there. So after that week there were people parked everywhere and they said they were no longer issuing tickets because of the building works. There was complete inconsistency in the rules
That the car park tickets should be kept for the purpose of those misusing the facility, and not those they knew to be genuine users
That we felt "tricked" into being given a ticket by constant reassurances from the guard that it was fine to be there
That the guard had told us on the day that the ticket should not have been issued
That the ticket was littered with copies of the police emblem - for a while we thought it was police issued - and we felt this was deliberately decieving


We appealed and got absolutely nowhere. Our letters were basically ignored and we just received a standard reply back eg "you were not parked in a marked bay". They refused to addresss any of the points we raised at all, just said they had photographic evidence.

Despite us responding to their letters immediately every time, they kept hiking the fine up. First they demanded £40, then they said we owed £80, then £120 for "extra administration costs" which I assume was sending the standard letters!

Then we got a letter saying the bailiffs would be coming round to collect articles to the value of £120 plus "costs". We wrote back and said that we would not be allowing anyone access to our home without a court-issued warrant (though at this point, I must admit, I was quite panicky and I nearly paid up), and that they had no right to do this as they still hadn't addressed the issues raised in our letter.

Finally we got a letter saying they were giving us one final chance to pay (weirdly, they reduced it back down to £90 at this point) or they would take us to court and we would have to pay all their associated costs. I wrote back and said, "fine, take us to court, I'm sure a court would love to hear about your non-existant appeals procedure and the fact that you have refused to address every single one of the issues we have raised". I was absolutely detemined by this time to go to court if need be, because I was so fed up with them refusing to address the issues in my appeal letter. We must have had about 6 letters from them and every single one was a standard letter - they didn't even use our name.

Two years on and we heard nothing after that letter. For about 6 months I was waiting, but have heard nothing. I'm not a legal expert, so I don't know if there's still time to take us to court or not. But my guess is they push you as far as they can to try and frighten you into paying, but don't actually bother with the court stage - I would imagine their chances of winning would be slight.:beer:

I was parked on a Residents area on a Bank Holiday and the sign did not make clear if that was OK or not. I asked 2 passing wardens if it was OK and they said yes. When I got back to my car it had been towed. I had to pay to get it released and I appealed. The appeal was rejected on the basis I had not taken the wardens numbers. The Westminster council made no attempt to identify them even though I could spotlight where and when the discussion occurred. After hitting some brick walls I eventually spoke with somebody at Westminster Council who refered me to a report that had been done into parking problems and appeals. Funnily enough the vast majority of bad tickets were down to incorrect warden advice. The report also highlighted timescales and I found that the council had exceded the timescale to reply to my initial appeal. Based on that I asked for a personal hearing which you can do after a rejected appeal and the council backed down and refunded me.