Parking Meter not working but received a Ticket and Towed

Rosemarie44

On Friday 8 March 2013 @ 4.10pm I parked in a bay on White Road, Stratford E15 opposite a pay machine (parking restrictions Mon - Sat 8am - 6.30pm) . This is a small residential road. I went across the road to the machine and attempted to pay for 2 hours parking (£3). I had 50p coins so when I put the first coin in the slot I saw that it registered the coin showing on the display that 50p was paid but when I put in another coin I noticed that it got stuck so I took a third coin to push the second one through but it went right through and came out at the bottom. The third coin was stuck so I took another coin and pushed that one through and the same thing happened where the coin went straight through and out the bottom. After a couple of minutes the machine ejected the first coin that registered. I started again but the exact same thing happened. I went back to the car to get some different coins to see if that would make a difference but again the exact same thing happened. On the sixth attempt the machine stopped registering any of the coins I inserted. I had two small children in the car both under the age of 9 years and I was getting concerned about leaving them in the car alone for that length of time. I had been at the machine for about 10 minutes and not knowing what else to do I returned to my car and wrote a note and placed it on the dashboard. The note read “Fri 8 March 2013 @ 4.20pm. Spent 10 mins trying to pay for 2 hours parking but machine opposite is not retaining coins”. As it had been raining it was damp and cold outside so my main concert was to get the children into the restaurant to get them something to eat. My eldest sister arrived to meet us at the restaurant shortly afterwards.

While sitting in the restaurant situated on the corner of White Road and Vicarage Lane about to eat my meal a woman opened the door and asked whose Audi was across the road. There was a man sitting at another table and he said it was his car. The woman told him that there was a traffic warden outside booking his car as he was parked on the single yellow line. He didn’t bother to go outside to his car. A moment later it occurred to me that I should go and check on my car to see if it had been booked so I told my sister what I was going to do and left her to watch the children.

I had my ipod in hand and decided to start filming as I was walking down the road towards my car. As I was approaching my car I could see that the warden had just placed a ticket on my car. I did not want to get into an altercation with him so I simply filmed around my car, the ticket and the note I had placed on the dashboard hoping that he would say something. The warden did not say anything about having seen my note and nor did he offer an explanation as to what I should have done in that situation. Instead, he took a couple of photographs of me while I was filming around my car (yes, I caught him on video taking photos of me!). As I approached my car I noticed a woman at the same pay machine I had tried to use earlier (caught on the video). After the warden had taken photos of me and a couple of my car he walked over to the pay machine as the woman was still there experiencing the same problems that I had. I filmed the warden trying to assist her and then she walked off shortly afterwards. The warden still did not say anything to me so I went back to the restaurant.

A few minutes later I remembered that there was another woman who had parked up around the same time that I did. She parked on the opposite side of the road next to the pay machine. She also experienced problems with the machine so she wrote a note and left it on her dashboard. However, when I went back to film her car and the note she had already left but there was a car in front of mine and the driver had left a note on the dashboard that read “the pay meter is not working” so I filmed that which shows my car parked behind it.

We left the restaurant around 6.10pm and imagine my dismay as we walked down the road and saw that my car was missing. My sister thought it had been stolen but I immediately knew that the parking attendant had acted maliciously and had made a call to arrange for my car to be towed away. I did not know where the car pound was so I suggested that we walk to the local police station on West Ham Lane to get the address. We arrived there around 6.30pm. The attendant phoned the car pound to find out how much it would cost and to ask what ID I needed to show. He wrote down the address and the cost and we left the station. I knew there was a minicab office down the road [name of street?] about a 10-minute walk so we went there. The minicab cost £12. After paying £265 (which included £40 for the parking ticket) I was given a Vehicle Release Receipt showing that my car was released at 7.35pm. I was given the form to lodge an appeal. I was not given any documentation to show what time my car was actually towed away.

I would appreciate some advice from anyone who has any knowledge or experience of a similar situation as I intend to lodge an appeal immediately. In my view the warden not only acted unprofessionally but he behaved in a vindictive manner carrying out his duty with malicious intent. He had the opportunity to simply explain to me what the correct procedure is when the pay machine is not working. That would have been the professional and decent thing to do. I would also like to know if I can claim my minicab cost and also compensation. :mad:

Coupon-mad

First things first, you can't claim the minicab expenses or compensation, sorry.

But the good news is you can probably get all your money back (tow fee and PCN cost too). I post as SchoolRunMum on pepipoo forums and cannot recall the last Council towaway case we have had on there where the motorist has followed our advice and NOT got a full refund. The Council will either accept your appeal (unlikely, what's in it for them?) or the adjudicator will uphold your appeal in the end (most likely).

Also it's an absolute no-brainer to always appeal a Council towing. Think of it as earning your money back, it's worth £265 to you. Anyone who doesn't bother is mad!

Ring up the Council on Monday and ask 'what time was my car towed' just so that you have that missing piece of information. It may help.

But then get yourself over to pepipoo, read some towing threads (any of them) and learn what sort of wording to put in your own appeal. It shoud be several paragraphs long like the appeal wording shown in this this successful thread by n101 in Enfield, see that by page 3 he had got his refund:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=70114

But don't post there on his thread, start your own new topic here:

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

...with pictures of your paperwork (all sides of everything including front and back of every page). Don't post without photos of your documents or you won't get much help. You could also post your filmed footage on youtube and link it for the pepipoo posters to see and comment on.

You will get your money back as long as you meet the deadlines for appeal and be determined to see it through. You will not get the taxi fare nor compensation, as I said - so don't even mention it, let that go and concentrate on the £265.

paddedjohn

Put your local council number in your phone and next time you have a problem with the meters call them up, i did this a couple of months ago and the council gave me a receipt number to display along with a written note.

Rosemarie44

Coupon-Mad (I think I'll change that to Coupon-Sane! lol). Thank you so much for taking the time to read my long post and I will follow your advice and visit the forum. I intend to lodge my appeal within the next day or two. I'm confident about getting my money back but I was thinking after getting it I would lodge a small claim for compensation & the minicab fare. I take it from your reply you would not recommend that. Has anyone ever done that before? If not, maybe I could be a test case. It would be great if I won then that would empower motorist with more victory. I know motorists are not always right but there are cases (such as mine) when the attendant is just being "bloody minded" and malicious. I would love to make the council pay for this unprofessional behaviour but whatever solid advice I get on this I will follow. I just hate injustice!

John, thank you too for taking the time to read my lengthy post. When the officer at the police station rang the car pound the man told him that there is a number on the pay machine that I should've called. I went back later to check and saw it but in the frustration of the moment who is looking for that? It was damp and cold! Hence why several drivers had also put notes on their dashboards explaining.