time limit on appeal to decision

davet30

I was issued with a Penalty charge notice from a council on 10th Sept 2011. I appealed and noted they had a waiting time of 50 days to adjudicate. After that period I contacted them via email and they said they were still dealing with the backlog and that my case would be investigated shortly. That was back on 21/11/2011. It's now 4 weeks later and I still haven't heard. Is there a time limit on how long I have to wait for a decision?

Thanks

PS have read the sticky note on read before posting and as far as I can tell the PCN is correct. - Parked in a restricted street during prescribed hours. I was parked on a tarmaced area of ground between the road and footpath - the road had double yellow lines on it. My argument is that I had broken down and so moved it to a safe place off the road.

pogofish

The limit is not set in stone but from what I've read, the chances of an adjudicator upholding a ticket after a council has sat on it for more than around twelve weeks is very slim indeed, so just sit tight and hope they all have a good long christmas holiday!

Orford

And make sure you keep copies of emails

Coupon-mad

davet30 wrote: »

I was issued with a Penalty charge notice from a council on 10th Sept 2011. I appealed and noted they had a waiting time of 50 days to adjudicate...
...My argument is that I had broken down and so moved it to a safe place off the road.

If you had broken down then check the Traffic Order for that street, there should be an exemption for a broken down vehicle. You must get the Order by asking the Council for it, either in person or by email (no need to mention any PCN, just ask for a link to the Order for that road as it's a public document). In addition, if you look on the Council website, there may be a CEOs' Code of Practice and it may mention 'broken down vehicles'. If so then read the COP and see if the right procedure was followed. However the Order is the main thing to look at.

And yellow lines apply from property boundary to property boundary. Not to say you don't have a case, just pointing out that you cannot avoid yellow lines by parking beyond them on a verge etc.

However, I think you have misunderstood the process & timings. Your appeal to the PCN was an informal appeal and they do not have a short restricted time to reply. I believe they simply have to consider informal appeals and have 6 months to get to the next stage of issuing a Notice to Owner.

The 56 days relates to the next stage; consideration of the owner's formal representations against the Notice to Owner in due course.

Then there's a third stage which is independent adjudication (the Council do not 'adjudicate', they just faff about and then routinely reject appeals!). It is worth knowing that MOST PEOPLE WIN who go as far as the third stage - adjudication - and all you risk if you lose is possibly being told to pay the full penalty (non-discounted) sometime next year. It's pretty much always worth appealing a Council PCN further than just informally - so be prepared for a longer haul than this!

So, if you get a rejection to your informal appeal, eventually, my advice would be to post a pic of both sides of your PCN and the rejection letter, and a link to the relevant pages in the Traffic Order, on pepipoo forum here:

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

That's a specialist forum which will get most posters off most Council PCNS.