NCP - Parking Fine - Help pLease in appeal

traceye

Hi, Was hoping someone may be able to help me.

I went to park in an NCP car park as part of a railway station. The car park is usually large with plenty of spaces, but I didnt realise they had shut half of it of (until I got there and it was too late to go anywhere else).

There were no parking spaces left, and a few people had parked on the end of the lines of cars (they werent causing an obstruction). The only place left to park, was also on the end of a line of cars, next to the pay and display meter. There were hashed yellow lines there, but there was no where else to park, and I would have missed my train driving to another station.

So I parked in the space. I wasnt causing an obstruction in any way. I paid the £5 parking fee and displayed the ticket (despite the ticket having the following days date on !! _ the machine must have been wrong).

When I returned, I received a fine £25 saying becuase I had parked in a restrictive area.

I am writing to appeal to say there was no where else to park, it wasnt obstructive and I had paid my ticket (it wasnt my fault there wasnt adeuqate parking facilities).

Do I have any grounds ? Is there anything legally I can quote, or am I totally in the wrong ???

Advice gratefullly received

Thanks :money:

TiTheRev

The Highway code says:

174

Box junctions. These have criss-cross yellow lines painted on the road (see 'Road markings'). You MUST NOT enter the box until your exit road or lane is clear. However, you may enter the box and wait when you want to turn right, and are only stopped from doing so by oncoming traffic, or by other vehicles waiting to turn right. At signalled roundabouts you MUST NOT enter the box unless you can cross over it completely without stopping.

So by stopping, permanently, you have broken the law! You may have been late for work, but saved yourself a £25 fine by finding another parking space elsewhere?!

djheath

TiTheRev wrote: »

The Highway code says:


So by stopping, permanently, you have broken the law! You may have been late for work, but saved yourself a £25 fine by finding another parking space elsewhere?!

The highway code doesn't apply to private parking garages!

But either way, you parked in a restricted part of the car park. You should pay the fine, you did wrong.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

TiTheRev wrote: »

The Highway code says:


So by stopping, permanently, you have broken the law! You may have been late for work, but saved yourself a £25 fine by finding another parking space elsewhere?!

He has not broken the law. A private car park is not a public highway. Your post is ridiculous and imbecilic.

To the OP - ignore any correspondence and do not pay the invoice they send. You are under no legal compulsion to pay them anything.

TiTheRev

Imbecilic?

Do you know where the OP parked? Inside or outside the Car Park? I was quoting the Highway Code incase it was outside and thus done by the council so against the law to park there.

Why try and get out of every fine? Just because you dont get caught, or there's a legal loophole, doesn't make what you've done right!? The OP parked in a place that was NOT marked as a parking space, end of story.

traceye

Hi, I parked inside the car park. (NCP). There was literally no where else to park that wouldnt cause an obstruction. I had to go to uni (4hours away!) for an end of course presentation I had to give and couldnt have parked anywhere else.

Im not trying to get out of it if I was in the wrong, but felt that I tried my best, there was nowhere else to park, and I did pay the £5 parking fee. I would still have got charged £25 if i didnt pay the fee and parked in the same place (so maybe i should just send £20!!!!).

I dont mind paying, but feel its unfair as there were no other spaces due to them doing work on the main car park site which I didnt know about. Other people who parked on the end of a line of cars, with no yellow markings also got a ticket - what rule where they breaking ?

Thanks for everyones help

TiTheRev

Whilst I sympathise there was no parking, and you didnt know, you (and the others at the end of a line of cars) still parked where there wasn't allocated spaces. I work right next to a station and there is a small NCP car park at the station, but plenty of other parking if you want to find it, and free at that. I applaud your attitude to paying the fine. My beef is with the crew that try to fight every 'injustice' brought upon themselves by breaking the rules of the road/carpark/wherever.

I hope you are shown leniency in your fine, and they take into consideration that you'd paid the parking levy for the day. Live and learn

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

TiTheRev wrote: »

Imbecilic?

Do you know where the OP parked? Inside or outside the Car Park? I was quoting the Highway Code incase it was outside and thus done by the council so against the law to park there.

Why try and get out of every fine? Just because you dont get caught, or there's a legal loophole, doesn't make what you've done right!? The OP parked in a place that was NOT marked as a parking space, end of story.

A box junction inside a car park? Good one.

There is no such thing as a loophole. The authorities ask that we follow the law, which is fine. I believe the authorities must also follow the same laws. They regularly do not. When this happens, they must be called to account.

So you appear to be defending inept council employees who cannot correctly interpret documents like the Road Traffic Act. That, in my opinion, makes you an imbecile. I bet you even work for a council.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

traceye wrote: »

I dont mind paying, but feel its unfair as there were no other spaces due to them doing work on the main car park site which I didnt know about. Other people who parked on the end of a line of cars, with no yellow markings also got a ticket - what rule where they breaking ?

Thanks for everyones help

Of course it's unfair. Did the company lose £25 of revenue from your mistake? No, they likely lost nothing. You paid, they got their money, no damage was done. Its a quick and easy way to make a bit on the side for them.

They may say that such rules are enforced to make the car park safer, but they abrogate all responsibility for safety to the vehicle owners (theft, damage etc).

Go to Pepipoo. You'll find a myriad of other people in similar situations who have successfully told these companies where to get off.

In short, ignore them and do not worry further.

mymatebob

If you go on over to http://www.pepipoo.com/ you will get the definitive info there.

If you are going to appeal then I would not use the "there was no where else to park" argument as frankly it is pointless. Just because there were no parking spaces doesn't mean it is okay to park where you like

You may well be able to ignore the "fine" but the experts at pepipoo will provide the best advice.

TiTheRev

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

A box junction inside a car park? Good one.

There is no such thing as a loophole. The authorities ask that we follow the law, which is fine. I believe the authorities must also follow the same laws. They regularly do not. When this happens, they must be called to account.

So you appear to be defending inept council employees who cannot correctly interpret documents like the Road Traffic Act. That, in my opinion, makes you an imbecile. I bet you even work for a council.

I was referring to road markings outside the car park which may keep the entrance clear or safer for pedestrians, not a box junction inside the car park :rolleyes:

As the previous post says:

Just because there were no parking spaces doesn't mean it is okay to park where you like

That's more or less what im saying, if there is signage up to say 'Cars illegally parked will be fined/clamped' (as most NCP car parks do!), then what arguement can you have that you didnt know etc?!

I dont work for, or have ever worked for the council btw...