Undated parking ticket

zaksmum

I got a parking ticket left on my windscreen which I intend to appeal due to the circumstances. I have just noticed it is totally undated. The issuer has inserted the time of the alleged parking infringement but the three date boxes (day, month and year) are blank.

Does this invalidate the ticket anyway? How would you know the date on which your 14 days to pay commences?

trisontana

zaksmum wrote: »

I got a parking ticket left on my windscreen which I intend to appeal due to the circumstances. I have just noticed it is totally undated. The issuer has inserted the time of the alleged parking infringement but the three date boxes (day, month and year) are blank.

Does this invalidate the ticket anyway? How would you know the date on which your 14 days to pay commences?

Was it a council car-park or a private one?

zaksmum

It was actually on a side street with no markings at all, and the ticket was for unneccessary obstruction. I checked everywhere but couldn't see the reason for it. I parked between two driveways, not on the kerb, being careful not to block either driveway. There's a small sign, about 12 inches by 10 inches, saying residential parking only, on a wall further along the road but on a bend, therefore not visible from where I parked at all.

My friend who has lived there 12 years says a resident put it there as it's close to a hospital and at visiting times a lot of cars park there, but there's certainly no official residents parking apart from their own driveways which every house has.

My friend took photos to support my appeal, but as the ticket's undated anyway, is the ticket invalid?

Coblcris

Is it a council PCN or a private one?

BFG_2

private - bin it

Council - iirc undated makes it invalid ticket.

Neil_B

Neither.

'Obstruction' and '14 days to pay' has got to be plod surely. Even if Council then RTRA 1984.

If former, then usual advice - don't risk appearance before Mag against plod.

-

Coupon-mad

I wonder if the copper (or his Mum) lives in one of the houses with the driveway you parked next to? And I wonder if that same resident was the busybody who put the sign up?

Some people need to get a life when it comes to others parking with 3 feet of their sacred driveway. If it wasn't blocked then it's not an obstruction but it sounds like the resident complained to plod (or as I said above, maybe the resident was plod!).

The only niggling thing is that it wasn't dated at all. I wonder if there's a remote possibility of a bent traffic copper filling in some blank-dated FPNs for his wife or Mum to slap on a car that dares to park outside their castle? Wife or Mum then scurries out with it and forgets to date it - tells plod OH/son later the car details and time and he does the necessary paperwork to follow the FPN through?

I know I'm being paranoid, just thought I'd say what occurred to me though!

zaksmum

Sorry all, computer been down for couple of days. It was actually a police parking ticket, but no date at all on it. You say don't take the plod on...but we did that once and won!! Cop car pulled me over, said I jumped a red, which I knew I hadn't. Everyone said just pay it, but I was fuming because I definitely DID NOT jump the red.

I went to court and was able to show that, had I really jumped the red, the cops would've been on green from where they were positioned and would have stopped me much quicker than they actually did. As it was, they'd had to wait for their own light to go green so I'd got quite a distance before they stopped me.

I'd admitted going through on amber, and the magistrate said there was no case to answer...the cops had to be in court, and they were NOT pleased!!

Even though it's police again, I feel strongly that I wasn't causing any obstruction, so I'm gonna take them on, and maybe point out to the magistrate that the ticket issuer isn't exactly good at his job if he didn't even check he'd dated the ticket!!

Coupon mad, you've got a point there...I never thought of that, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least.

DaveF327

How wide was the road? If you name the road and town, we can google it and possibly point you in the direction of a defence (in addition to the lack of date).

zaksmum

DaveF327 wrote: »

How wide was the road? If you name the road and town, we can google it and possibly point you in the direction of a defence (in addition to the lack of date).

Just a small side road opposite Fazakerly hospital in Liverpool...a road of mainly 3 and 4 bed privately owned detached or semi detached Barratt type houses in a mainly council/ex council house area.

DaveF327

zaksmum wrote: »

Just a small side road opposite Fazakerly hospital in Liverpool...a road of mainly 3 and 4 bed privately owned detached or semi detached Barratt type houses in a mainly council/ex council house area.

Would Adlam Road be accurate enough? http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.468035,-2.93262&spn=0.009107,0.01929&z=16

If that's where you parked, I really can't see a problem with the scale of the road versus the other cars parked there. I'd try to get the court to throw it out through lack of date before hitting them with the "no contravention" defence. Don't pay anything now, but please be aware of the time limits to request a court hearing.