Parking in a loading bay

edwin_smooth

:mad::mad::mad: Just got a ticket for parking in a loading bay whilst I was genuinely unloading!

At 5pm I parked in a bay outside a music venue to unload my friends guitar amp for him. The sign read maximum stay 1 hour (7am - 6pm). I thought I would be OK for at least an hour so I dropped the amp in the venue, round the corner and had a cup of tea after a long drive. I returned at 5:50 to find a ticket.

If I pay the fine it will be £35. If I appeal the fine will go up to £70 as it will undoubtedly take more than 14 days to process. (you pay within 14 days and the fine is less). So what do I do? I don't think I have substantial evidence that I was dropping the amp off. All I have is my friends word and the venue's flyers/ticket stubs. Does anyone have any experience of anything like this? Any advice would be very gratefully received.

Coupon-mad

Firstly, do not mention the cup of tea and waiting around, nor that you thought you could just stay there for an hour.

All you do is appeal, with an enclosed letter from the friend, stating date/time and details about the venue where you were unloading and delivering the guitar amp. Maybe take a photo of it for good measure and include that, to show it was a large and bulky item and no-one could have stayed with the car as you were alone and it took time to get the thing into the premises and then to your friend.

Your thoughts about the 14 days expiring are wrong. Read the back of the PCN!

Go to pepipoo for help:

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

Most people there get off most PCNs but only once the discount bribe has gone, most first appeals are refused but if you stick to the fact you were unloading a guitar amp and NO OTHER details about cups of tea and hanging around/parking for 50 mins, then you will win in the end. A loading bay is for the time needed to load/unload.

Tilt

What exactly was the contravention on the ticket?

edwin_smooth

It says that the civil enforcement officer had reasonable cause to believe I was parked in a loading place during restricted hours without loading. It also says observed from 17:32 til 17:43 but the sign says maximum stay of 1 hr.

edward123

edwin_smooth wrote: »

It says that the civil enforcement officer had reasonable cause to believe I was parked in a loading place during restricted hours without loading. It also says observed from 17:32 til 17:43 but the sign says maximum stay of 1 hr.

I'm no expert...but I'll venture a thought for what its worth. I would think the 60min maximum would mean the actual time you are unloading/loading. So, one might park in the bay, unload something but then that's it, you must move vehicle because you are no longer unloading/loading. The officer stood nearby when you were not there and as he/she did not see you unloading for a period of 11 minutes did have "reasonable cause" to think you had parked w/o unloading/loading.(Going off to have a cup of tea is not unloading and also you would be stopping someone else who wish to park there to load/unload....the very bay's reason. ) Hence CM's advice would be wholly right(not that it needs me to confirm it is of course) about not mentioning anything but unloading!

[Deleted User]

I got a ticket once for parking in a loading bay while loading flat packs from Argos into the car. Apparently it would have been fine if it was a van.

Coupon-mad

Deleted_User wrote: »

I got a ticket once for parking in a loading bay while loading flat packs from Argos into the car. Apparently it would have been fine if it was a van.

Yep but that's a different contravention - yours would have been a loading bay for 'a certain type of vehicle' only and the contravention code would have reflected that fact. Not the same contravention, not the same signs, not the same sort of bay.

The OP's PCN is just accusing him of 'not loading' in an ordinary (any vehicle) loading bay. And the vehicle was observed for a few minutes so the CEO wasn't wrong to issue it because he saw no evidence of loaing/unloading activity. Doesn't mean it cannot be appealed though.

But my advice has not changed, stick with proving the fact you were unloading and delivering the guitar amp to a specific person wiothin a building nearby and this was the relevant and nearest bay to park in.

Say in your letter that, whilst the CEO may well have thought there was no unloading going on, the observation was clearly during the time it took you to carry/manoeuvre the heavy and builky item along the street, wait to be let into the locked(?) guarded(?) premises/door/gates(?) then to go inside (was it up some stairs?) hand it over to the recipient and then return to the vehicle.

Enclose a photo of the guitar amp against the car or a person for scale, and a letter from the friend with date and time just corroborating the delivery of the amp (nothing more). No mention of tea, no loo break, nothing.

As already advised really. And expect a rejection early doors (do not believe any info which pretends that loading has to be continuously observable because it doesn't). But you should win later at adjudication - if you never discuss/admit anything else except the unloading/delivery and do not say how long the vehicle was actually there (not saying lie, just saying only tell the bits that help your appeal).