Council PCN for ticket that had turned over in wind

lesandricko

Hello
On Tuesday my family and I were visiting the national museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. I parked directly outside the museum. It was £2.20 per hour, I paid £4.40 for 2 hrs as that's all the change I had. I bought the ticket at 1315hrs, it expired at 1515 hrs.
It was horrendous weather, snow and blowing a gale. I put the ticket on my dashboard (but unfortunately didn't stick it) and it must have turned over with the wind when I shut the door.
When I had more change I returned to my car to purchase another ticket, (well before the expiry of ticket) but found a PCN. I have to pay £60, or £30 if I pay within 14 days. It is from Edinburgh city council.
The ticket was issued stating: parking without payment of the parking charge.
But this is untrue! I am miffed beyond belief. I would like to appeal against the charge, and have looked at the draft letter on this site.
My questions are:
Does anyone think I have a chance of a successful appeal?
Should I mention that the ticket had blown over to the wrong side? Or leave that bit out?
THANKYOU in advance!

Coupon-mad

Here you go, the same subject came up today on pepipoo forums with all the advice you need to word a good appeal:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=69565&hl=fluttering

I am SchoolRunMum on pepipoo and you will see that I did post on that thread among other posters, all of us recommending a simple appeal with a copy of the P&D ticket.

And in your case, the contravention did not occur so tell them that, nicely, and see if they will cancel this early. There are other stages to the appeals process though which is why we've recommended asking for more info if they decide to reject.

If they do reject your first informal appeal, then I would recommend starting your own pepipoo thread for help & advice on your own case, as you should win this in the end even if you have to go to adjudication.

lesandricko

Thanku for your speedy response :beer: I have read the link.
I was surprised to see in my PCN that the reason was not because I had failed to display the P&D ticket correctly.
So in my letter should I say that I returned to my car and noticed the P&D ticket had overturned? And therefore the reason for receiving the PCN is incorrect? Or would they then just say that as I have just admitted to it not being displayed correctly they will uphold it but for a different contravention?

give_them_FA

I stand to be corrected by others more experienced in dealing with Council PCNs- but as I understand it, they are stuck with whatever they initially put on the PCN and cannot substitute a different offence later. So if the PCN is faulty- it is invalid, full stop.

Coupon-mad

give_them_FA wrote: »

I stand to be corrected by others more experienced in dealing with Council PCNs- but as I understand it, they are stuck with whatever they initially put on the PCN and cannot substitute a different offence later. So if the PCN is faulty- it is invalid, full stop.

No need to correct anything, you are right, they cannot reissue a PCN with any changes.

lesandricko

Excellent! I shall finish penning my protest letter & post in the morning. Thanku!