Parking times changed without notice

themadhatter

Hi All,

I received a parking ticket recently for parking in a council parking zone that I've used for a few years. I always park after 7pm as it's free. However, I recently received a ticket as the times had been extended to 8pm. That's fair enough, but there were no warnings to the public that the times had changed. Nottingham City Council are adamant that it's the driver's responsibility to check the parking times when they leave their car. OK, but I received this ticket 2 weeks after the times had changed. 2 weeks after the ticket was issued there were temporary signs put up to notify the public about the changes in times.

My argument is that the council failed to properly notify the public about the changes in the parking times at that time. They obviously had the same opinion as they did put signs up to warn users later on. Is it worth trying to fight this? Personally I think it's a bit unfair. If the council don't think it's their position to warn drivers of any time changes, why put up signs later?

Kind regards,
Matt

give_them_FA

If you didn't notice the signs then it is of course arguable that they were inadequate. Were signs put up in advance of the change to warn people that it would be changing?

To suggest that you park somewhere regularly but are supposed to check it each and every time is hardly realistic.

I got a PCN once when the council changed a Mon-Sat restriction to include Sunday as well without notice, it was quashed on adjudication because of inadequate signing.

themadhatter

Hi,

Thanks a lot for your reponse. The council didn't put up any signage previous to changing the times from 7pm to 8pm. The only time they put visual notices up was about 5 or 6 weeks after changing the times. These were temporary signs added to the permanent signs. I imagine a lot of regular parkers were caught out by this. I can't say whether they declared the time changes in the local newspaper or not as I have better things to do with my time than to check the newspaper for changes to parking times )

As you say, to expect people to check the parking times after they've parked there for the past few years seems a bit incredible. I expected the council to put up temporary notices about the change in times to warn people when the actual times changed (not 6 weeks later) but that didn't happen either. It's gone to the adjudication stage now so fingers crossed. You've given me hope anyway, thank you. I'm going to beat them into submission. Fair is fair in my view and they weren't fair about it. I also received a parking ticket at 9:20am on New Years Day (I got out there at 9:40am to move it but it was too late). I suspect local councils are struggling with their finances at the moment so they're trying to pull it where they can. 9:20am on New Years Day. Unbelievable that anybody was working.

Thanks again,
Matt

give_them_FA

They must be desperate for cash to have had someone out there on New Year's Day! Good luck with it Matt.

I would also recommend, if not already done, that you float it up on pepipoo too, as there are some very knowledgeable people there when it comes to Council tickets.

Coupon-mad

I would post in pepipoo about this, start a new topic here:

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

Make sure you only post when you are ready to show pictures, you won't get many replies there without pics! They need both sides of the PCN and all documents and letters, also a pic of the signs and lines. Read their FAQ first 'how to post pictures' and read a thread or two to get the hang of the forum.

Pepipoo can help most people win most Council PCN appeals. It IS worth appealing IMHO.

Kite2010

If it's like the local council in this area, they display the new tariffs on posters a good 4 weeks before they come into force and take out public notices in the local newspapers with details of the new tariffs & charging times.

If you park in the same car-park week in week out and you know it's free after 6pm, do you check every single time or just get into the habit of thinking that it's free as you haven't heard or seen otherwise.

themadhatter

Hi all,

Thanks for the responses everybody. I've posted this on pepipoo too, as advised, so we'll see. I've got a couple of weeks before I have to write my notes up to the third-party adjudicator.

After years of parking in that same spot I just became complacent I guess, as most people would. I certainly wasn't flaunting the law and I think in this case, since the new time restrictions had only just come into force, the Sherriff of Nottingham should have pardoned me on this one occasion. You pay your high council taxes and then they sting you like a worthless peasant. I saw no posters advertising the new restrictions. That's not to say they weren't there but surely you'd put them on the actual signs (which they thought to do after).

We'll see but thanks again people. If we stick together then we can prevent 1984 happening all over again

Kind regards,
Matt