Time of contravention question.

mouselchu

I was always lead to believe that the "time and date stamp on the ticket" was the exact point when the ticket was issued and the legal reference point.

Recently I got a ticket where the "observed from" time went past the "time of contravention" so I challenged it on the basis that this invalidated the ticket.

The council have replied saying it is fine because the "observed to time is when the ticket was actually printed" and the time of contravention is merely any time when the warden believes a contravention has happened.

Are they trying to bluff here and should I go to appeal, or are they technically correct. Bear in mind that this is a challenge on a technicality, as it appears it was in a one hour zone for a few minutes too many.

Neil_B

mouselchu wrote: »

Recently I got a ticket where the "observed from" time went past the "time of contravention" so I challenged it on the basis that this invalidated the ticket.

I'm not actually understanding that? You haven't shown a PCN and crucial info of which Council not mentioned - and circumstances?
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TheBogsDollocks

The legislation does not require the observation times to be included on a PCN only the contravention time. I don't think what you have explained will be strong enough to cancel the PCN. However there may be other errors. The link below explains what should be detailed on a PCN. Compare it with what you received.

http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegType=All+Legislation&Year=2007&number=3483&searchEnacted=0&extentMatchOnly=0&confersPower=0&blanketAmendment=0&sortAlpha=0&TYPE=QS&PageNumber=1&NavFrom=0&parentActiveTextDocId=3440187&ActiveTextDocId=3440241&filesize=346

mouselchu

Sorry - may not have been clear on my first post - also dont have scanner to put picture.

My point was this - that the attendant should not be able to put future information on the ticket. Clearly they cannot issue a ticket on the 5th May observing something on the 6th May, but since there is also a time of contravention as well as a date then the same should apply with hours and minutes.

Therefore I appealed that to say that something was observed from eg 10:15 to 10:45 on a ticket that is "timed" at eg 10:35, would be to predict the future, hence invalidating the ticket.

They claim that the ticket is issued at the end of the observed period and that the time stamp is merely any stage when the attendant thinks there has been a contravention, but, given its similarity in position and standing to the date entry I think it is fair to reason that the "time of contravention" is the legal reference point for when the ticket was issued. The other point is that the observed period is not mandatory (as you mentioned) and that area is merely narrative to back up the issue of the ticket. To start to suggest that the information in there can become a reference point would set a whole new precedent.

Dont know whether to pursue this line, or give up, and wondered if anyone else had used or seen anything similar.