Southwark Parking Ticket

RealDeal50

Stupidly got a parking ticket fine for parking on a residental street for permit holders only with a disabled badge.

The begining of the street there was pay and display, disabled bays and single yellow lines but there were parked cars on them. I could've parked further up but didnt fancy the trip!

The fine was for £40 if within 14 days or £80 otherwise. Please can you advice where I stand, pay or not? Thanks,

Ticket fine by southwark council.

Inflatable_Armadillo

RealDeal50 wrote: »

Stupidly got a parking ticket fine for parking on a residental street for permit holders only with a disabled badge.

The begining of the street there was pay and display, disabled bays and single yellow lines but there were parked cars on them. I could've parked further up but didnt fancy the trip!

The fine was for £40 if within 14 days or £80 otherwise. Please can you advice where I stand, pay or not? Thanks,

Ticket fine by southwark council.

Firstly, it is a council issued ticket and it is therefore a real Penalty Charge Notice, so you should not ignore it.

If you would like some more detailed advice on the potential of fighting this ticket start a new thread here - http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30 on pepipoo and the posters there will give you their opinions on if you have a case.

You will need to post a copy of your PCN, both sides, with all all reference and your VRN removed, but keep all other information, times, dates etc showing.

Good luck!

skarne

[FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]I received a parking fine for 2 1/2 minutes pulled over in Elm Grove in Peckham, Southwark. Those of you who might know it will know it is a dead end off the main street. I was lost and took a wrong turn into this road, and did a three point turn in this road before pausing to check the map quickly. The photos on the council website show that I am waiting a good few feet from any markings, and in each photo the brake lights can clearly be seen as being on – I never turned the engine off, nor left the car: does this still count as parking?
The sign is just behind the car, and is teeny tiny, and the photos on the council website aren’t clear enough to show what the sign says. Also, from where the car is in the photo, there is no way I could see what the sign said from where I was sitting – and to get out to read it would mean I would have to park the car. There is also another, bigger sign with a camera icon saying Traffic Enforcement Camera, but with no context as to where this sign is placed in relation to my parking: I am pretty sure this was at the other end of the dead end, so you can only see it when driving out of the road and not into it. It also looks like a speed camera icon - ‘traffic enforcement camera’ doesn’t say to me ‘parking’ camera, as traffic needs to be moving to be called traffic. Otherwise, if it’s parked, it’s a vehicle or obstruction, I would have thought? So ‘vehicle enforcement’ would even be a better phrase.
Do I have a strong case for appeal? I cannot deny I paused the car there, but it was for less than three minutes (including turning round, and waiting for a very slow pedestrian to walk across in front as I pulled off). I didn’t know the area, it was done the day before I moved there – which the council know as I informed them of the date I was moving in for council tax purposes prior to the PCN being issued.
I simply cannot afford to pay this fine and really hope I can appeal because I was trying to act in a safe and responsible way. I am hoping because I never left the car, or even turned the engine off, and that it was only less than three minutes, they will let me appeal. What do you think?
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Coupon-mad

You can and should always appeal any Council ticket, most people win if they go as far as adjudication. And almost everyone on pepipoo wins. You need expert help so go to pepipoo, as already linked by Inflatable Armadillo.

But first of all, read this summary of last year's Chief Adjudicator's Report:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=62696

Although, as you say, there were CCTV signs up, there are other appeal points raised in that report if you read the info and successful appeals quoted.

It gives you the suggestion to include in your appeal a request for the Council to show that it paid regard to, and considered, the guidance on CCTV enforcement and to explain why they used a camera when a CEO on foot would have been able to cover that area. And ask them to show that the camera was an approved device - which it probably was but the point is, the Council have to properly reply to each point and very often do not.

And quote the last bit of the Chief Adjudicator's sentence on that report excerpt 'it should not be a contravention to stop briefly to ascertain the times of operation from the upright sign!' I would say that you stopped for such a short time to check a map that, like the example stated by the Chief Adjudicator, it was a stop so brief as to be considered 'de minimis' (a mere trifle, not a contravention).

Forget the fact you were in the car, paused is stopped; stopped is parked. There is no argument there, so forget that and take advice on pepipoo.

You will need to register and start your own new pepipoo topic (do not hijack another thread as you have inadvertently done here).

Look at some other threads to get a feel for that forum; you will see that you must include a picture of all pages of the PCN and a pic of where you parked (lines & signs). If you cannot get an actual photo of the place then a GoogleStretView link will do if the markings & signs are the same. You must show pics.

Most people win but be aware that most Councils do not fold at the first appeal. If you want to fight it then be confident and take advice through all the appeal stages. The only risk is possibly being told by an adjudicator, at the end, that you must pay the non-discounted fine. There's no costs so it's just an all or nothing gamble with the odds in your favour.

Oh, and do not just look at the photos - view the moving footage they have (the PCN will tell you how). Hopefully the footage will back up your story of the 3 point turn and brief stop - then you can add that fact to your appeal.