PCN help - I couldn't find a machine

Red_Bear

Hi

I've had my first appeal rejected by the council for a PCN that was issued when I had walked around the area for 5-10 minutes but couldn't find a machine to buy a ticket. I appealed on these grounds, including a photo of the sign saying to buy a ticket at the machine, with an arrow, and explaining that I had walked to the end of the (very short) street, and had then gone all the way along the street both to the left and the right, and across the main road at the other end of the street, but could not find a machine.

The reply I received says:

"Oak Street (City Centre), where you were parked, is in the City Centre Controlled Parking Zone. As you enter Manchester City Centre, you will pass a Controlled Zone sign. This tells you when the Pay & Display and single yellow line rules apply in the City Centre. The Controlled Zone signs explain that the rules for Pay & Display bays apply 8.00am-8.00pm, seven days a week.

I have noted the comments you have made in your letter and while I sympathise with your predicament, I am satisfied that your Penalty Charge Notice was issued correctly. If a machine is out of use, you must use a nearby machine.

Therefore, I am satisfied that your parking ticket was issued correctly."

My view is that the machine was not out of use, it was non-existant, and I couldn't find a nearby machine to use, or I would have been happy to buy a ticket!

Is it worth me waiting for the NtO to arrive and challenging this further, or should I just pay the reduced fine. Unfortunately, as I've been on holiday for a couple of weeks, I've just discovered that the 14 day reduced charge period runs out today - otherwise I would have posted for advice sooner!

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me :-)

Coupon-mad

I would appeal any Council PCN all the way to adjudication as most people win who take appeals to that stage (as explained on Watchdog last week - it is true).

If there was no machine to pay then you couldn't pay could you?!

Here's an example of a similar pepipoo thread I remembered that had been won when the person made a strong appeal, demanding evidence & info, as shown:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=69985

So IMHO wait for that NTO and then post on pepipoo with pics of all your letters like that person did. Pepipoo is the best place to win Council PCN appeals because almost every case wins in the end, over 90% of cases posted about, IMHO.

Funnily enough on that linked thread I happened to give most of the advice (I post as SchoolRunMum over there on pepipoo) but there are many more expert posters there who can help you when they see your PCN and NTO etc.

All pages, all sides, all small print of all documents needs to be shown on a pepipoo opening post, plus a copy & paste of your original appeal wording and a link to the exact same place on Google Streetview or a photo of the streets showing no machines! They will help you but you may as well wait for the NTO and could spend the waiting time emailing the Council for the Traffic Order relating to that place (or finding it on the Council website if linked there, look for the Traffic Orders).