Got a parking ticket fine after paying to park!

the182guy

Hi all,

This happend to a friend of mine and I wanted to know if there's anything he can do. Basically he parked on a Pay-and-display carpark, he bought a ticket from the machine, put it in the window and walked away. He came back a while later and there was a £50 fine for "not clearly displaying a ticket".

The ticket was one of those types where you peel off the back and use that to stick it to the window, when he got back to the car, only the sticky part was in the window, the part with all the time/date details on was gone. He looked everywhere in the car to no avail. The only thing he can think of is when he put the ticket in the window, it must have blown out of the car before closing the door, or while the passenger was getting out - as the car park is next to the beach in an open area so there is often strong winds.

We don't know if they have CCTV on the car park, I should think they do though incase of anyone trying to break into the machines containing money, or parked cars. If they do have CCTV then it would prove that he bought a ticket. The machine should also have a log of the ticket aswell.

What do you think? Is it worth trying to protest this or just pay it?

peter_the_piper

Please say if this was a private car park, in which case just ignore it, or a council one.

the182guy

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Please say if this was a private car park, in which case just ignore it, or a council one.

Hi peter, many thanks for your reply. I'm pretty sure it's a council car park as on the ticket my friend said there is an email address with something like enquiries@parkwise.lanc I have looked this up and found out that ParkWise is Lancashire County Council.

Horace

Something similar happened to me in Stratford upon Avon - I had taken my kit car there for a day out and having no windscreen on the vehicle I put the ticket on the tax disc holder which was down near the exhaust pipe at the front of the car. When I got back a huge sticky parking ticket had been stuck on my head restraint - it was a hot day and the goo had melted.

I actually appealled the ticket and sent the council a photocopy of the ticket and pointed out to them that I did not have a windscreen on the vehicle and put it elsewhere on the vehicle where if their parking attendant had bothered to look then he would have seen it. I also sent them the bill for cleaning the sticky goo off the head restraint. They saw sense and cancelled the ticket.

I was done by them on another occasion too when I was in my normal car - the ticket had become unstuck and was residing on the floor of my car - again I appealled and sent them a photocopy of the ticket and pointed out to them that I could not be held responsible for the lack of stickability of their stickers - again I got off this one too.

the182guy

Hi Horace, thanks for that, glad to hear you got yours cancelled. The problem with this situation though is my friend doesn't have the other ticket. But like I said in my other post, surely the car park will have CCTV on the machines.

jammy26

a similar thing happened to me and the local council asked for the sticky bit as this had a reference number on which they could check against the machine to prove I had purchased a ticket. Might be worth a try.

the182guy

Thanks all, the sticky part of the ticket has a reference number on it so hopefully that will clear it up.

the182guy

Lancashire council have now responded saying the fine still stands, this is the reason:

[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]The PCN was issued as the vehicle was parked without clearly displaying a valid pay and display ticket. You are unable to provide a copy of your valid ticket.

Even though the reference number on the sticky part of the ticket has been provided to them.

Is there anything that can be done?

DaveF327

the182guy wrote: »

Is there anything that can be done?

Apart from looking at your windscreen before walking away from your car next time (sorry, but I'm sure we're all thinking that too), you should now approach the independent adjudicator who will consider all the evidence including that reference number on your sticky strip. See https://www.trafficpenaltytribunal.gov.uk for details.

Dave101t

i think the 'wind blew it away' excuse doesnt fly with the council. like posters say, if its private, forget about it anyway.

fastbargins

The reason that just having the sticky part might not work is because your friend could easily have bought the ticket, put the sticky in his car and given the actual ticket to someone else to put in their car (2 for the price of 1-hurray!). Although I'm sure that this isn't what happened, that will likely be the councils defence and of course you can't really prove that this didn't happen.

Basically your friend is appealing to the councils better nature, and some councils do respond quite positively if they believe that someone has just been unlucky, so fingers crossed.

Your original idea about cctv may be worth looking into, though its a long shot. To get a copy of any images of your friend, he needs to make a 'subject access request' to the council stating the date and time he suspects they may have recorded his image. Don't say why you want this (you don't need a reason, but they may ask for proof that it's your image your looking for). If there were cameras and they happened to be pointing in your direction and the council have still got the images, then it might show your friend puting the ticket in the car and it blowing away.... like I said - its a long shot, but hey, its worth a try!