Well today has been a nightmare, what are our chances of appealing this fine?

apesxx

Received a parking fine today, basically we bought a parking ticket and it wasn't sticky so just placed it on the dash. We were in southport and the OH realised he couldn't find his I-pod touch so went back to the car to look for it. As its really windy and in his panic looking for his iPod the wind must ave blown the ticket off the dash. He couldn't find his I-pod so locked car and came back to meet us.
We have our parking ticket here and just wondering if there is any point trying to appeal or is there just no point and we should just pay the £25 before it doubles.

Today has been a very expensive day in all with OH losing his iPod touch ( a 64gb one too ) the parking fine and the kids bleeding us dry in southport

give_them_FA

Who issued this ticket? Was it the local council or a private company? Important.

sinizterguy

If local council, and they have pictures of no ticket displayed (which they will, if your ticket wasn't correctly displayed) - appeal all you want - you will get nowhere.

If private company, file it in the bin and ignore any further correspondence.

give_them_FA

Not always right, provided you still have the ticket, then you will often get allowed a "blow-off". Certainly if you take it to an adjudicator you should win the appeal. As you say, if it's private just ignore; but I am guessing it isn't as the cowboys are usually much greedier than £25, lol

Kite2010

sinizterguy wrote: »

If local council, and they have pictures of no ticket displayed (which they will, if your ticket wasn't correctly displayed) - appeal all you want - you will get nowhere.

If private company, file it in the bin and ignore any further correspondence.

If you appeal to the local council you might get lucky on the 2nd/3rd try saying that a gust of wind blow the ticket off the dashboard when you were exiting the car and it's their fault for not having sticky tickets.

£25 does sound like a council, doubling to £50 after 14 days.

apesxx

hi, yes sorry the fine is from sefton council. if it had of been a private firm it would have gone straight in the bin.
i just thought i would ask incase we might have a chance. I know its only £25 but with OH being made redundant few weeks back we cant really afford to just give it away southport was a treat for the kids who have both spent most of the easter hols on the settee with a sickness and diareea bug.

Is it worth paying it and appealing at same time in the hope we will get refunded as i really cant afford for it to double.
thanks for all your advice, today has just been a bloody nightmare!

sarahg1969

Firstly, you cannot pay and then appeal, so don't do that.

Secondly, it would be a good idea to go to pepipoo and post up the ticket and any signs from the car aprk:

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

Even if there's no chance on the contravention itself (ie the missing ticket), the wording on the PCN or the signage may be incorrect.

Don't pay just yet

Coupon-mad

apesxx wrote: »

hi, yes sorry the fine is from sefton council. if it had of been a private firm it would have gone straight in the bin.
i just thought i would ask incase we might have a chance. I know its only £25 but with OH being made redundant few weeks back we cant really afford to just give it away southport was a treat for the kids who have both spent most of the easter hols on the settee with a sickness and diareea bug.

Is it worth paying it and appealing at same time in the hope we will get refunded as i really cant afford for it to double.
thanks for all your advice, today has just been a bloody nightmare!

You cannot pay and then appeal.

Please take Sarahg1969's advice and get over to pepipoo with your 'fluttering ticket' case. It's like this one (please don't post on that thread, start your own new one, this one is for info):

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

Please look at the info on that thread and also Google 'fluttering ticket PCN' and read forum posts and a Chief Adjudicator's report from 2006 where this phenomenon was covered in depth, with examples of successful appeals. Most of these cases should be - and are - winnable. If I were you, apesxx, I would NOT pay this ticket but would appeal all the way like the successful appellants in the Adjudicator's Report from 2006 (you must read it) and ukdeveloper in the linked pepipoo thread.

Start your own new topic on pepipoo asap and you won't look back.

sinizterguy has the right idea about private tickets (always ignore them) but the all-too-commonly-wrong idea about Council PCN appeals. Most can be appealed successfully but you usually have to appeal much further than the first stage and know what to say (advice from pepipoo wins most cases in the end). However, Bogsy's wording as used in the linked pepipoo thread is known to have some success to actually get some Councils to fold earlier regarding genuine fluttering tickets, which is even better!

NOTHING TO LOSE BY TRYING AS MOST COUNCILS RE-OFFER THE DISCOUNT IF YOU APPEAL BY DAY 14 (CHECK THE BACK OF THE PCN)

give_them_FA

Yes, very important. Do not pay at this stage. Payment is regarded as an admission of guilt and you cannot then appeal. Posting on pepidoo is good advice as they have specialists on this subject. You can create a bit of extra time by sending them a written challenge, which will "freeze" the 14 day period until they reply.

Do you actually have the pay & display ticket still?

apesxx

thanks for the advice, i will find my camera tomorrow and try to take a good picture of the ticket and the fine as i dont have a scanner and post on pepipoo. thanks coupon mad for the link. Do you think it is worth sending off the letter in your link and do i send the originals or would i send photocopies? i will make sure i have photocopies before i send the originals.
what happens if i dont hear anything within the 14 days and the appeal fails, would i then owe £50?

apesxx

and yes sorry, i do have the original pay and display ticket. it had blown into the footwell of the car whilst OH was checking to see if he had left his ipod in the car.