County/Borough Council PCN valid ?

JJ43

Do Council PCN's have any more validity over a private company one ?

I received a PCN for parking in a bay used for either residents with a permit or visitors with a voucher. I stupidly overslept and didn't get to the car before the 10am restriction started with my voucher that I did have.

It says;

CEO had reason to believe that the following contravention had occurred and that a penalty charge is now payable.
Parked in a residents bay or shared use parking place without clearly displaying a permit or voucher.

Thanks

£70 payable reduced to £35 if payed within 14 days!

Coblcris

Do NOT ignore council PCNs.

However just being issued by a council does not mean it is error free.

We would need to see the PCN and photographs of the signs and lines a start point.

Coupon-mad

Of course, they are completely different things.

Council issued PCNs are real and you must not ignore them (as you would ignore private parking companies).

Post up pictures of the front and back of your PCN, all the small print and dates (but blank out your car ID and PCN number). Can you also show pics of the bay lines and signs?

This info will tell us if you may have an appeal based on flawed documents or signs/lines. Don't ignore it, don't sit on it, there's a strict time schedule for you to appeal a real PCN.

Oh, and as you are a newbie you'll not be allowed to post links. This is not a problem - just put a space after the 'http' to 'break' the link (or delete the 'http' and we'll add it back in).

JJ43

Thanks guys, I don't have a scanner here, but maybe I can somehow do it at work ?

peter_the_piper

Mobile phone cam, digital camera, both set on macro/closeup.

JJ43

I've managed to scan the PCN but it's coverted to a PDF file which I cannot seem to edit nor open with paint as the other thread suggests. I've also copied it to word and opened but again can't edit! Any ideas ?

Coblcris

Change the settings in your scanner software so as to produce graphical images.

Or use a digital camera.

Coupon-mad

JJ43 wrote: »

I've managed to scan the PCN but it's coverted to a PDF file which I cannot seem to edit nor open with paint as the other thread suggests. I've also copied it to word and opened but again can't edit! Any ideas ?

A quick non-techy answer would be to stick paper over the bits of the document you want to hide (PCN number and car ID) and then scan it again, save it into your scans or your pictures. Then host it on tinypic as per the sticky 'how to post images'.

Make sure you scan the back of the PCN in full as that's often flawed in the small-print!

JJ43

Sucess, I think ? Sorry it's in two parts, slight tech error.

http/i49.tinypic.com/ptx20.jpg

http/i48.tinypic.com/2w4wxv7.jpg

Coupon-mad

The images are fine. Have a look at this recent thread on pepipoo.com which features a PCN from Worthing:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=52426

The posters there have found fault with various parts of the wording of the Worthing PCN so that's a point of appeal to add in.. Flaws with PCN wording are a really strong appeal as Councils rarely if ever want to risk allowing appeals based on the wording of their PCNs to be scrutinised by an adjudicator. The implications are too much for all other PCNs as you would imagine.

If you need more advice and an explanation of what the posters mean by the posts they have made, start your own thread on pepipoo (don't reply on that thread). Attach pics of the front & back of the PCN - hosted on tinypic as per the forum rules 'how to post pictures' here:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30

And if you are not local, try to find the place you parked on Google Street View and let pepipoo posters have a look at the signs & lines as well. It could be that the bay has the wrong white lines (very common In Worthing - I'm from Sussex myself but not near enough to go & look I am afraid).

Finally, just to warn that most Councils decline informal reps so if at first you don't succeed, try again when you get the Notice to Owner and take pepipoo's advice to get the formal appeal spot on.

You only risk paying the full (non-discounted) fine so personally I think it's worth saying you'll appeal all the way to the adjudicator if you get advice from pepipoo about your PCN wording.

Your call of course, good luck .:)

JJ43

Thanks again, I've now posted in the other forum so await a response.