Parked on double yellow

Emmiemoo

I received a fine from my local council. I pay for a parking permit for on street parking however permits are not required on Sundays so the spaces are free to everyone. There are 2 churches within 300m of my house so Sunday mornings the spaces are filled with church-goers.Sunday just passed, I went and did my weekly food shop with my husband (on crutches with broken leg) and 4-month-old daughter. I return to my house to find all spaces within 300-400m filled with cars. In fact, after 2 laps round the block, the nearest space was 3 streets away up a steep hill. So to unload my husband on crutches, baby in car seat and weekly food shopping, I parked on a double yellow, anticipating being less than a few minutes to simply put them all inside and then move the car to wherever. That was the plan until my daughter kicked off screaming the place down. As you can imagine my husband on crutches is not in a position to comfort the baby, make her a bottle etc, so that is down to me as well as driving and carrying in the shopping.So after 8-9 minutes I knew I had to move the car, but low-and-behold I got a ticket.I have informally appealed twice both of which declined. I was hoping to appeal to a human stating my current difficult circumstances and I even asked a question directly asking which would you do first: 1. comfort your distraught baby, 2. put away your food shopping so it doesn't spoil or 3. make your husband walk the 300m when he is clearly in pain? To which I didn't get an answer.I know stopping on double yellows is valid for loading and unloading but the traffic warden didn't see me doing this is in a 5 minute period of the 9 minutes mentioned earlier.
Advice would be appreciated on how to move forward.
Contravention states parked in a restricted street during restricted hours.
Thanks in advance.

martinsurrey

1) pay the fine - move forward

no option 2 imo

Mulder00

From what you have described, I don't think your circumstances are difficult or out of the ordinary. Many households have kids, many go shopping and your husband managed to go shopping with you, so he could walk a bit (or you could have unloaded him and then parked the car). Either way, not going to dispute that he was in pain or your baby was screaming, but nothing sounds like truly exceptional circumstances.

Sorry, but just pay the fine and get on with life.

spikyone

martinsurrey wrote: »

1) pay the fine - move forward

no option 2 imo

Of course there is an option 2, there is a further appeal service (PATAS) that can be used. However most of the expertise on MSE relates to private parking tickets.

OP - visit the pepipoo forums instead, where they have members who are more expert in dealing with council tickets. Read a few threads to understand what information they will need to help you, and then start a new thread there.

Pretending you know what you're talking about and saying "just pay it" doesn't help.

Iceweasel

I completely empathise with you, but unfortunately you appealed as so many folks do, naively stating mitigating circumstances.

All your talk about babies and crutches was a waste of time.

All you had to do was appeal on the grounds that you were unloading - simple as that. Ask any white-van man.

Loading and Unloading does not have to be seen to be done to be taking place. A private car has the same unloading allowances as a big truck or a delivery van.

Problem is that parking enforcement officers on the street don't think that way.

What length of time was stated on the ticket? Less than 10 minutes?

Your receipt for groceries and a sworn statement from your husband that they were delivered and unloaded at a certain time would have quashed it.

Unfortunately appealing to councils looking for a 'human' response does not work.

Edit: Of course check on Pepipoo for exactly how to word your next official formal appeal.

Good luck.

DCodd

Iceweasel..This appears to be an informal appeal? Appealing the NtO is the next step with a decently worded appeal is it not?

Iceweasel

DCodd wrote: »

Iceweasel..This appears to be an informal appeal? Appealing the NtO is the next step with a decently worded appeal is it not?

You're right - I failed to take proper note of the word 'informal'.

I have edited my post.

Thank you for picking up my oversight.

Coupon-mad

Emmiemoo wrote: »

I received a fine from my local council. I pay for a parking permit for on street parking however permits are not required on Sundays so the spaces are free to everyone. There are 2 churches within 300m of my house so Sunday mornings the spaces are filled with church-goers.Sunday just passed, I went and did my weekly food shop with my husband (on crutches with broken leg) and 4-month-old daughter. I return to my house to find all spaces within 300-400m filled with cars. In fact, after 2 laps round the block, the nearest space was 3 streets away up a steep hill. So to unload my husband on crutches, baby in car seat and weekly food shopping, I parked on a double yellow, anticipating being less than a few minutes to simply put them all inside and then move the car to wherever. That was the plan until my daughter kicked off screaming the place down. As you can imagine my husband on crutches is not in a position to comfort the baby, make her a bottle etc, so that is down to me as well as driving and carrying in the shopping.So after 8-9 minutes I knew I had to move the car, but low-and-behold I got a ticket.I have informally appealed twice both of which declined. I was hoping to appeal to a human stating my current difficult circumstances and I even asked a question directly asking which would you do first: 1. comfort your distraught baby, 2. put away your food shopping so it doesn't spoil or 3. make your husband walk the 300m when he is clearly in pain? To which I didn't get an answer.I know stopping on double yellows is valid for loading and unloading but the traffic warden didn't see me doing this is in a 5 minute period of the 9 minutes mentioned earlier.
Advice would be appreciated on how to move forward.
Contravention states parked in a restricted street during restricted hours.
Thanks in advance.

Hope you didn't tell them about 'stopping to soothe the baby' because your other reasons for parking there at first were exempt of course. ' Unloading bags', and 'assisted alighting' (helping your OH and getting the baby safely from the car into adjacent premises). ALL EXEMPT activity when stopped on a double yellow, whether the CEO sees you or not. Trouble is, soothing the baby, warming a bottle and putting the shopping away isn't!

As an aside, I guess this may have started out in the wrong part of the forum judging by the first couple of responses. Gawd knows why idiots post unhelpfully that people should 'just pay' a parking ticket when they don't even seem to know the rules about double yellows. Unless the DYL also has kerb blips (no loading as well) then they do NOT mean 'no stopping at all'. Jeez!

Start a new thread on pepipoo here and tell them exactly what you said in your appeal letter, and show them a pic of the PCN both sides, and the rejection letter too (do NOT type it out, please scan or take photos and show pics):

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

Most people can appeal and win against almost any Council PCN even without pepipoo, but Councils and the 'just pay' brigade don't want to think it's true. It is.