Parking Ticket Appeals successes and failures

Alzaman

My dad was ticket by Town and City Parking at the local Tesco St. Rollox in Glasgow. Armed with the wealth of information on this site, i've told him he's paying nothing, will reply to no letters, and admit or appeal anything.

I was wise to parking scams, as most people are, and kinda thoguht this would be the case, and it smelled of Eau De Rat

To add to this, the bay he parked in had signs stating they will be converted to disabled bays, but weren't currently disabled bays.

Another cowboy racket trying to capitalise on the poor public. We have a few "experiments" planned to see if the "parking" attendant appears.

Thanks Tesco .. custom goes elsewhere now

lucky11_2

I fell asleep in a motorway services car park recently for 3 hours, 2 days later I had a penalty notice (sent to my previous address) though no notice was issued to my car... (I told the recipient to file the letter in the flip-top kitchen receptacle) nice to know they'd rather force people to drive sleepily down the motorway risking theirs and the lives of others, than rest properly after being on the road for hours.... scamming gits :rolleyes:

luch_2

We came back at 3am one morning to discover our car had 'disappeared' from its parking place - we immediately assumed it had been stolen so phoned the police in a panic only to be told it had been towed away by the local council for being parked in a suspended bay! We were incredulous as couldn't see the grounds on which this had happened - there were no signs in the vicinity. We went back down to the road and finally spotted one suspension sign up the other end of the road, which actually had a big sticker over it saying it had been lifted. Of course, I took a photo on the spot.

Then the following morning we had to trek to the middle of nowhere to pick up the car and pay our £260 - what a ridiculous amount of money. We couldn't get over the number of cars in the pound, it must be such a moneyspinner for the council.

We appealed (formally) straight away on the following grounds (using the template on here):
- request for further evidence that the contravention did occur - I said that I didn't believe we were parked illegally and wanted to see photographs. I enclosed the photo of the suspension lifted sticker, taken at 3am (!) the day after it had been towed.
- inadequate signage - there was only one suspension sign in the whole road (which had in any case been lifted as above) - they are under a duty to provide sufficient signage, etc etc. Again I had photos.
I then wrote some general stuff about how we had a residents parking permit and always parked legally, the roadworks had been going on for three months and were now finished so no reason for parking to be even suspended any more, towing a very drastic measure to take etc (managed to find some council minutes saying that they would move cars where possible rather than towing - yes I did spent a silly amount of time on this).

Yesterday we got a letter from the council saying they had considered our evidence and representations and were cancelling the PCN and refunding our money - result! It doesn't make up for the sheer time and hassle involved with both getting our car back and the appeal process itself, but at least we feel vindicated and got our money back. We were prepared to take it to PATAS and given other stories on here I was fully expecting the local authority to reject our first appeal.

I think the fact that we had a clearly-argued and evidence-based case was crucial - I imagine the photos were probably the clincher, so definitely take as many as possible. Thanks very much MSE for the brilliant guide!

Coupon-mad

That's great news. Well done! :T

It's surely always worth appealing a Council tow because, after all, you've already paid so what's to lose? Sounds like you put a great case to them though!

luch_2

Thanks for the post Coupon-mad - as you could probably tell, I was very pleased!:j

Coupon-mad wrote: »

It's surely always worth appealing a Council tow because, after all, you've already paid so what's to lose?

Couldn't agree more! But I'm sure a lot of people don't bother because of the time it takes, so the councils probably get away with it a lot of the time.

clements_tony

Hi i wonder if any1 here could help. we moved into a councail flat about 18 months ago when we moved in we wer told the parking was restricked , well 1 month after we moved in the put dobble yellow down , and said we could use a car park that was about 5mins walk (but in a rought unlite place) . in my eyes u should be able to park were u live as i have a 3year old and no1 wants to walk with shopping and ya girl over bizzy roads. cut a long story short . me and a disabled bloke and a few overs stayed parkin the and we all get ATLEAST 4 AWEEK and this has been going on for 18 months now everyday i get a letter though the door for £105 , as i havant paid 1 sence i have been there, i have tryed talkin to the parkin office and no1 wants to know, any1 out there think they could help ? thanks

peter_the_piper

Regrettably, in law noone has a "right" to park anywhere. How many tickets have you got in the 18months? Having not paid them is probably brewing up a whole load of trouble. I can't believe that this is council parking as they would have jumped on this well before now.
Can I suggest you start a separate thread and include the details above. This thread is for discussing Martins article and your details could easily get lost amongst other posts.

superstar2707

hello everybody i have a quick question i was shopping in merry hill dudley i recieved a notification of unauthorised parking from UKPC. the box ticked as vehical causing obstruction. i admit i did park the whole of my car on the pavement however it wasnt obstructing any car or any person trying to get into their cars so it was causing no obstruction.

just wondering if i should pay for it or not?

Crabman

superstar2707 wrote: »

hello everybody i have a quick question i was shopping in merry hill dudley i recieved a notification of unauthorised parking from UKPC. the box ticked as vehical causing obstruction. i admit i did park the whole of my car on the pavement however it wasnt obstructing any car or any person trying to get into their cars so it was causing no obstruction.

just wondering if i should pay for it or not?

I got one in Merry Hill a few months ago but UKPC were incredibly rude and didn't bother to follow-up and threaten by post.

I suggest that the registered keeper (RK) of the vehicle ignore it unless they issue court proceedings (very rare and they haven't won a legitimate case yet).

Given that the parking there is free it would be incredibly interesting to see them make a case for a parking charge. I guess they won't and will instead just make laughable threats about debt collectors and a negative effect on credit records to scare the RK into paying up.

stebiz

Would be interested to hear views. I had to return 3 very large parcels to Argos, and the car park was solid. I parked near to the store with my hazards on and walked in and handed my parcels in. I then went out (with a few minutes) to move my car and I was being given a ticket. It was a private car park. I explained to the guy that I couldn't manage to bring them in, in any other way. All I was doing was unloading. He took a photo and told me that it had just cost me £85. I drove off in disgust to find a parking place. Never got a ticket.

Have I got anything to worry about? Am I out of order? What should I do next??

Thanks Guys. So much for Xmas spirit!!