Multiple parking tickets, please advise

luci13

Hi all

I've had 3 parking tickets in the last couple of months and would appreciate some advice on whether I am justified in fighting them.

1. I was parked in a private car park at a shopping centre, Cannon Park in Coventry. The last time I parked there was 5 years ago, when the car park was free for 2 hours (evidently this has since changed to 1 hour, which is strange because it is a big shopping centre with a cafe, hairdressers, supermarket, etc). I received a letter in the post with photos of my car being parked there for 1 hour 40 mins which exceeded the 1 hour limit. I was not aware the limit had been reduced to 1 hour and I had not seen any signs to indicate this, they certainly are not conspicuous. I paid the £50 charge immediately which I now regret having read the forums on this site. This has made me feel less willing to pay the further two charges I have since received.

2. I parked behind a skip on a residential street in London whilst staying with relatives. In the morning I had been issued with a ticket and in the daylight I noticed a sign further down the street stipulating no parking outside the particular house I had parked outside. The skip in use by this house had been placed just in front of the adjacent house on the street so it seemed that the reserved space was taken up by the skip, rather than my car. I appealed 3 weeks ago to the Council by email stating that the sign indicated only one reserved bay which was presumably taken up by the skip. They still haven't replied.

3. I was issued with a PCN in a car park for not displaying a valid ticket. My ticket had fallen to the floor presumably due to air circulating in the car after the door had been closed. I appealed on the council website and they have rejected my appeal sending photos of my car without a ticket displayed and stating that the ticket was unlikely to have fallen on the floor had it been properly displayed.

Any advice on whether I am in the right to fight these last two charges?

taffy056

You need to break down these tickets, as we can't answer three different issues in one thread.

The first one to a private parking company should be ignored now, you have been caught with a £50 invoice you should not have paid, so don't make the same mistake again.

On 2 and 3 you need to try pepipoo on the link below, they are the experts on council tickets, you will need create two threads one for each ticket, they will need scans of the PCNs, and if you can images of the area you parked in, just make sure you remove personal details from the scans.

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

Coupon-mad

Oh dear, you took the wrong one seriously. £50 down the drain to a scammer.

But now you have 2 real PCNs from Councils, those must not be ignored and I am glad to see you have started the appeals process. However there is more than one stage to the Council appeals procedure for PCNs.

As taffy says, get over to pepipoo and start your own 2 new threads there, one for each real Council ticket (no need to mention the fake one as that money has gone now and to mention it would confuse the threads you start). You need to show pictures or scans of each piece of paperwork which relates to each separate PCN thread.

Do not put them both on one thread or you will confuse matters.

While you are waiting for a pepipoo reply to your threads, Google 'fluttering ticket Parking Adjudicator's Report 2006' and read the report, find the whole section on fluttering tickets. That's very relevant to your last PCN and as you will see, some Traffic Orders are not written well enough to allow the Council to consider a fluttering P&D ticket as a contravention. There are successful appeals mentioned on that report, use them in your draft reply to the Council (show your draft to pepipoo posters on your fluttering ticket thread first).

Oh, and you could also Google 'suspended bay DFT authorisation pepipoo' which should show you other threads about suspended bays. You will see that Councils need DFT special authorisation for those temporary signs - and in fact it's unusual to find a Council that has bothered. Therefore most suspended bay signs are unprescribed (unlawful) road signs which mean nothing and would not be upheld by an adjudicator if an appellant pointed that out.

Good luck, do come back here in the end when you win the Council appeals.

vax2002

You paid the wrong one !
the first one was a scam
The next two could end up in bailiffs.
A quick guide:
Any REAL parking ticket will say:
Traffic management ACT 2004
if it does not say this anywhere on the ticket it is is scam ticket.
On the other two as said, get everything scanned and head over to pepipoo.

sarahg1969

vax2002 wrote: »

You paid the wrong one !
the first one was a scam
The next two could end up in bailiffs.
A quick guide:
Any REAL parking ticket will say:
Traffic management ACT 2004
if it does not say this anywhere on the ticket it is is scam ticket.
On the other two as said, get everything scanned and head over to pepipoo.

A genuine ticket may also be an Excess Charge Notice, served under The Road Traffic Regulations Act 1984, where parking has not been decriminalised. Definitely do NOT ignore one of these, or you'll end up before the Magistrates!

Or you may receive a ticket under Railway Byelaws, which may or may not be genuine, but again should not be simply ignored.