Council PCN for 40 seconds on Kerb-Ealing council

polkadot

Evening everyone

First post to this part of the board,for a "colleague" on another forum. Her daughter is a single mum and she's just posted asking for help regarding this PCN...her quote from that forum below:

The camera that catches drivers parking in the bus stop was not pointing in the bus stop direction but in my dd's direction. When she got the summons to pay £60 by Ealing Council, it says she parked for less than 40 seconds. She had dropped off her friend.

She argued with the powers that be, that she couldn't afford the fine and would they please re-consider, as if was less than 40 seconds. I think it was 36 seconds. 'No' basically was the answer, so she got shirty and pleaded again and in the meantime the fine went up to £100.

Realising she was not getting anywhere, she offered to pay via instalments. She has no money, as she is a single parent. They said 'No' but Louise then went to Citizens Advice and they advised her to send a small amount anyway, 'to show you are willing to pay and if it gets to court, you have that as back up'.

E.Council accepted the first payment of £10 but rejected the 2nd payment, saying the fine would go up to £140 if she does not pay within 14 days. Louise went back to CAB again and they spoke to E.Council over the phone, who said they do not accept instalments and the fine will go up to £140 if she does not pay. CAB argued that they accepted the first payment and they made some excuse. E. Council said if she doesn't pay, the Bailiffs will come round and she will end up in court. CAB has said this will cost her even more money.

She was unaware of MSE until she posted asking for help and I linked her to here.She's very overwhelmed by the concept of getting started and posting to the right sub board,so I offered to do OP for her.She has registered so I will send her a link to the thread and she can post responses to any questions you wonderfully helpful folk might have to give her the best responses possible:D

Coupon-mad

Oh dear. Why did she not just go to the adjudicator rather than to Citizen's Advice (known to be fairly CLUELESS about parking law)? She appealed but does not seem to have gone all the way to PATAS? Hopefully it's not too late...

Secondly, best advice from me would be to register and post on a really simple and dedicated motorists' fightback forum, pepipoo. Link here:

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

She will need to post the thread herself and show pictures of the PCN, her appeal wording, the rejection letter(s). It's not hard, just look at a few threads on that link, everyone manages to post up their pics and the VAST majority win their case when it's a real PCN from a Council.

The posters on pepipoo will need to know a timeline of which documents (exact title from each letter) were received and when, supported by photos. They are the experts and will tell it like it is, hopefully will help her to get off it at the eleventh hour...

polkadot

Thanks CM...I dont think she was aware of the parking adjudicator,I only knew about it because Ive been spending a lot of time here;)

I will let her know of your response:)

Chrstine

Hi, It is my daughter who is in trouble, Thank you Polkadot for posting for me.

Thank you CM. We've never heard of a parking adjudiactor, so the reason dd went to CAB. How does she go about that.

She's really thinking it's not worth the hassle and talking about trying to get a loan to pay it. I want her to fight because this cannot be right.

I have already told her to keep sending payment, even if they send it back.

I am now going to investigate the link that you posted CM.

Thank you for responding,

C.

esmerobbo

Unfortunately parking penalties don't go to court any more, the only form of official appeal is with as C-M says the adjudicator. You will have to be careful as the council will send it to TEC for enforcement, which can wack up the costs.
Maybe worth a post on Pepipoo see if there is another way around it, but try and not let it get too far into enforcement. We have seen these £50 tickets becoming several hundred if not dealt with!

If you want to see how it works! http://www.parkingandtrafficappeals.gov.uk/parkingenforcement.htm