Parked over the bay markings because of a tree in the bay!

Jimmy_Tunstead

Hi everyone

I was given a parking ticket for parking over the bay markings in a council owned car park in October. The car park contains many established trees and on the particular Saturday morning that I parked there, there were few spaces available save for 2 very very small adjacent spaces, both with large trees encroaching into the bays. I parked as close as I could to the tree so that I could open my rear car door to get my toddler out of the car, but the tree encroached into the bay approximately 2 foot and this meant that I was over the bay markings and into the other bay. On my return I never even noticed the ticket on my windscreen and when I finaly spotted it I was livid. I returned the following day to take photos of the bay and another car was parked there, also over the bay markings. Interestingly the car was the same as mine, a Ford Focus. It is clear the tree is forcing people to park away from it and causes the cars to park over the markings. I submitted a challenge which was rejected on Christmas Eve, the council arguing such nonsense as they bays have been enlarged because of the trees (no they havent, they are very small bays even without the trees) or that I could have let my 5 year old and toddler out of the car first and then parked up (whilst praying they werent ran over I suppose). Ive looked all over the internet for "parking bays with obstuctions" in them, such as large trees, but cannot find any information. Is the bay legal? The tree also means the bay is not fully marked (Although the line I parked over was). It clearly forced me to park my small/medium sized car where I did meaning I incurred a fine. It just doesnt seem fair. Thanks.

sarahg1969

Post up the ticket and all other documents you've received, as well as photos of the area in which you parked, on http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30. Someone on there wil be able to assist you.

Trebor16

I would take some photos of the bays and also measure them up. When you have done this go across to www.pepipoo.com and go into their council parking ticket section. There are some seasoned campaigners there who will be able to assist. But if they ask for something please provide it.

27col

Was it a bay tree?

TrickyWicky

It may not actually even be a parking bay in their eyes.

We had one like this where I used to work and despite there being a big tree there and no rectangular box (there was either side of it) people still used to pull up and park on the tree roots on a daily basis and frankly it got to the point where it was raised in meetings because we were all so fed up of arguing about it with management and the motorists. It wasn't a marked bay but motorists take anything that looks car size to be a bay and then grumble when they get a PCN. It was always a hot topic as some staff would enforce it rigorously whilst others would ignore it in the faith that the tree wasn't important.

What you need to do is be 100% that this is a parking bay and not the space between two sets of bays. IF you're sure thats the case, get photos and appeal it to the adjudicator. Even if its not the council could still potentially put down yellow lines there so if it goes to an adjudication and you win, consider asking the adjudicator to make an order for this to be done by the council ASAP. They have many more powers than you would realise and a rare case years ago they actually ordered one authority to refund every PCN issued due to an error on their PCNs. They rarely use these powers but they do exist so if you win the adjudication you should ask if this could be ordered.

Jimmy_Tunstead

Thanks everyone. In answer to Twickywicky it is 100% a parking bay! There are several bays in this particular car park with trees in them!

taffy056

27col wrote: »

Was it a bay tree?

Leaf it out mate, we supposed be helping

TrickyWicky

Jimmy_Tunstead wrote: »

Thanks everyone. In answer to Twickywicky it is 100% a parking bay! There are several bays in this particular car park with trees in them!

In that case the council may argue its only suitable for smaller vehicles / motorbikes. I've seen this done before. It's the same principle as a space at the side of the road, if your car won't fit in, you don't park there.

These "bay isn't big enough" PCN cases usually relate to the width of a bay but rarely the length.

Appeal it anyway (nothing to lose) and post on peppipoo too. Keep us updated though!