Parking Ticket - Unclear Sign - Advice please

Kay

Hi all - I got a parking ticket yesterday, something I don't usually give a lot of thought to, as I'm a Blue Badge Holder and don't generally need to check signs other than to make sure Disabled parking is free.

I visited Leeds yesterday and found that the disabled bays near to where I was going were full and had a 4 hour restriction anyway, so I parked in a marked bay around the corner which was marked as free for disabled badge holders. What I hadn't seen was the sign which was at right angles to the street sign, stating that it was a taxi rank after 6pm.

I returned at 6.15 to find a parking ticket - I immediately moved the car to one of the disabled bays which was now free and also warned a few other people who were parking in one of these bays, as no one else could see the restriction easily either.

I think they've set the signs like this on purpose as a trap and I'm not sure the right angled sign is either clear or fair - what do you think? I'm not sure if I've grounds to appeal or if I should pay up for not checking hard enough? The section behind where I was parked was marked on the road for being for taxis, which is what I presumed the yellow sign was indicating, but not where I was parked, to the left of the arrow on the sign.

Kay

Also, one of the things I was doing was dropping off some boxes of leaflets at the O2 Academy opposite and wondered if there was scope for claiming I was unloading??

nigelbb

Do they have different rules for Blue Badge parking in Leeds? Here in Norwich aside from disabled parking spaces

Blue badge holders in Norwich may also park:
on single or double yellow lines for up to three hours if displaying a time clock, provided they do not cause an obstruction, road safety hazard, or where there is a loading ban in operation
in permit bays without restriction on length of stay
in pay and display bays, at no charge without restriction on length of stay
in limited waiting bays without restriction on length of stay
in loading bays, but must comply with the waiting restriction, i.e. active loading and unloading for the time limit as signed in that bay.

http://www.norwich.gov.uk/TransportAndStreets/Parking/pages/DisabledParking-BlueBadges.aspx

So you can have up to 3 hours on single yellow lines if displaying a time clock anyway.

In this situation it seems overly harsh to penalise for 15 minutes overstay even if you didn't have a Blue Badge. Most people who appeal parking tickets win so you most certainly should not pay & instead appeal. There are several levels of appeal so even if you get knocked back at the first one do persist.

Kay

No, they've done me for parking in a Taxi Rank, even though it's unclear which bays are actually the taxi rank and the only sign saying there are 7 spaces is the one facing away from the road. The area behind where I was parked says it's for taxis on the road itself, but these bays just had the yellow line and you're supposed to be able to tell from that that it's a taxi bay!

nigelbb

All good points for an appeal especially as it's just an overstay. It's not as though you came along at 18:15 & parked there for the evening.

Presumably as a Blue Badge holder your mobility is affected so an extra 15 minutes to get back to the car is a reasonable allowance that the council should make under the Equality Act (see I have been learning from poster CouponMad:-)..

Kay

Someone also told me that they should have two times on the parking ticket issued - the time I was observed parking contrary to their rules and another time which should be at least 5 minutes later when the ticket was issued - is this correct or does it only apply to some offences and not others? There's only one time on this one, but it's for parking in a taxi rank and not overstaying in a normal space that became a taxi rank after a certain time.

Coupon-mad

Kay wrote: »

Someone also told me that they should have two times on the parking ticket issued - the time I was observed parking contrary to their rules and another time which should be at least 5 minutes later when the ticket was issued - is this correct or does it only apply to some offences and not others? There's only one time on this one, but it's for parking in a taxi rank and not overstaying in a normal space that became a taxi rank after a certain time.

Yes that is only for some contraventions. Parking on a taxi rank is an instant PCN (no need for observation time) but that doesn't mean it's not appealable!

You need to post these pics and a pic of the front and back of your PCN, on pepipoo forum which is where the experts are:

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

Almost everyone who appeals a PCN with pepipoo forum help, wins in the end. You need to be aware that most first challenges are routinely rejected (most Councils do this, because they can...) and that most people have to forget the discount (bribe) and carry on appealing further, on an all-or-nothing basis.


HTH