How are parking tickets issued nowadays?

Lemoncurd

Do they always attach tickets to the car?
I was parked in a Local Authority controlled space and got back to my car approx 5 mins late. Just as I approached it a parking inspector emerged from the front of the car and crossed the road to look at cars on the other side. There was nothing attached to the car, does this mean I've probably got away with it or do they just send some fines through the post?

Coupon-mad

They no longer have to attach a ticket to a car, as long as they then choose to serve it properly by post within a certain time (28 days I think). And it would then have to be a reg 10 PCN stating that the CEO tried to issue the PCN but the car was driven away as it was being prepared.

Often Councils don't bother with that, sometimes the CEO pretends he issued it and just throws the ticket away. The first the motorist knows about it is a Notice to Owner a month or so later. In that situation it can be appealed to an adjudicator - as indeed it still can/should be whatever the circumstances, even if you do get a reg 10 PCN.

If ever you get a Council PCN just put a pic of both sides of it on a new thread on pepipoo forums here:

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

As you can see if you skim-read a few threads, they get most people off most Council PCNs. There are almost always some grounds for appeal.

Inflatable_Armadillo

The other thing to add to Coupon-mad's excellent post is that, as you would expect, levels of discretion and reasonableness vary from CEO to CEO and Council to Council! Some CEO's, often the ones that work directly for a council (as opposed to being contracted via a third party PPC company for DCE duties) IMO, tend to use their discretion more and see there job as, what it should be, traffic and parking management. So if you are 5 mins over on say a two hour ticket, then they will leave it for say another 5 or 10 mins before coming and giving you a ticket. Some, will hit you straight away and see it is as tick in their book and feather in their cap. As Coupon-mad posts, some will even play a dirty game!

The council's can vary too in the way the handle appeals. I got a PCN from my LA for not displaying a ticket in an on street bay. The CEO had noticed the upside down ticket on the dash and made a note of it. I e-mailed the LA the next day, with a scan of my ticket, explaining that I had returned to my car again after placing the ticket because I forgotten something from the car and it must have blown over when I opened the door. The e-mailed back within 30 mins explaining that the CEO had noted the upside down ticket and they were happy I had now paid, apologised for the PCN (yes, honestly!) but explained they had to double check and cancelled the PCN!

So, the moral is... some people have morals... some don't!