Help of the 56 day PCN rule

NolanP

Hello all,


This is my first posting as a MSE debutante.

Basically I am looking for some clarification on the 56 day rule whereby councils in London are obliged by the Traffic Management Act 2004 (I think that is the legislation).


My case of woe goes like this.

I parked my car on a single yellow line in Ealing on a Sunday morning. Cam back & lo! I had a ticket on my windscreen. There was no signage on the nearby lampost that there were single yellow line restrictions in place.


Anyhow...fast forward a little bit and I received a formal Notice To Owner.

I then appealed this pointing out the lack of signage.

The bean counters at Ealing Council then responded that they had investigated my case blah blah blah and that they would not be cancelling my PCN tax.


This is the crucial bit. I then wrote a second formal appeal letter including the image evidence I had taken on my mobile phone which I managed to embed onto my appeal letter. The bit here is that I then heard nothing back from the council for 76 days until the week before the formal PATAS appeal when Ealing Council sent me a dossier of their evidence.

So...my questions is thus. Do the council only have to respond to my first formal appeal and no more or....are they obliged by law to respond to all of my formal appeals within 56 days?

I am not an expert on this and would greatly welcome any knowledge on this matter.


Thanks all!
P a u l
:T

Coblcris

Only the first formal representations to the NTO matters for the 56 day rule under the TMA.

It was not an appeal.
The sequence, for the TMA, is:-
1 Challenge (to the PCN)
2 Formal representation to the NTO
3 Appeal to the Tribunal.

Coupon-mad

When's your PATAS hearing?

If you still have the PATAS hearing looming then put a new topic on pepipoo and ask for urgent help & advice:

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

Was the area within a CPZ? In which case there need be no sign at the yellow line and you'd be onto a loser with that argument. Doesn't mean there are no other arguments though, not sure if it's too late.

Neil_B

Coupon-mad wrote: »

When's your PATAS hearing?

If you still have the PATAS hearing looming then put a new topic on pepipoo and ask for urgent help & advice:

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

Was the area within a CPZ? In which case there need be no sign at the yellow line and you'd be onto a loser with that argument. Doesn't mean there are no other arguments though, not sure if it's too late.

Do as he says to se if anything can be salvaged. Even the best way to bail out if need be.

react

Hi

In a similar vain, I've jus had an appeal with PATAS rejected, my appeal was based on the 56 day rule.

I appealed saying that the council took way more than 56 days to respond to my appeal against the PCN. PATAS have stated this is classed as an informal appeal, and that the 56 day rule only applies to an appeal against the 'Notice to Owner'.

This seems unfair as it should apply to all stages of the process.

In the appeal evidence, the council produced a letter I'd never seen, which was dated as exactly 56 days from the orignal informal appeal, with my email address written incorrectly. very suspicious!

The only thing that happened in my favour is that I can pay the 'reduced' rate for a set period.

Coupon-mad

react wrote: »

Hi

In a similar vain, I've jus had an appeal with PATAS rejected, my appeal was based on the 56 day rule.

I appealed saying that the council took way more than 56 days to respond to my appeal against the PCN. PATAS have stated this is classed as an informal appeal, and that the 56 day rule only applies to an appeal against the 'Notice to Owner'.

This seems unfair as it should apply to all stages of the process.

In the appeal evidence, the council produced a letter I'd never seen, which was dated as exactly 56 days from the orignal informal appeal, with my email address written incorrectly. very suspicious!

The only thing that happened in my favour is that I can pay the 'reduced' rate for a set period.

They were right, you should never have appealed on that basis!

Next time, put the PCN on a new thread on pepipoo forums and the chances are they would have found you correct grounds for appealing and winning.