PCN - Parking ticket !

steveowen100

Hi Folks

I was at an event yesterday, my graduation. I parked outside the venue and didnt realise it had pay and display restrictions. There were no signs anywhere near, no yellow lines. This was a main road , seafront promenade, on the opposite side of the road was the pay meter, which at this time was surrounded by students and therefore not visible. On returning to the car i found a parking ticket for £60.00 or £30.00 if paid for within 14 days. I took several pictures of my car to highlight there were no visible signs near my car and therefore using these i will dispute the ticket.

Question is does anybody know where i stand legally....

kind regards

sarahg1969

I assume this is a Penalty Charge Notice from the local council? And not a private ticket?

If so, while you may be liable for the penalty charge, it could well be that the notice is incorrectly worded, and therefore invalid. Or there may be some other reason to invalidate the ticket.

I can highly recommend the forums on https://www.pepipoo.com.

I would definitely suggest you go there for some very helpful advice.

Sarah

hollydays

I also understand it is the drivers responsibility to look for signs,so you may not have a get out here.

nobblyned

steveowen100 wrote: »

Hi Folks

I was at an event yesterday, my graduation. I parked outside the venue and didnt realise it had pay and display restrictions. There were no signs anywhere near, no yellow lines. This was a main road , seafront promenade, on the opposite side of the road was the pay meter, which at this time was surrounded by students and therefore not visible. On returning to the car i found a parking ticket for £60.00 or £30.00 if paid for within 14 days. I took several pictures of my car to highlight there were no visible signs near my car and therefore using these i will dispute the ticket.

Question is does anybody know where i stand legally....

kind regards

Pay and display areas are normally signified by the fact the area is marked as a parking bay, i.e. dotted thin white lines marking a cars width from the kerb along the side of the road. If you see this you know you have you have to find the sign to see what the terms are, the signs can be quite a distance away, it is the road markings that show you are in restricted a bay.

The parking restrictions are not signified by the presence of a machine, these can often be far apart and difficult to spot, hence the lines and signs. You would have to show that there were no lines and signs to have a reasonable chance of dispute, the machine's proximity is irrelevant

yeslek

not always

there are a fair few marked bays on the sides or roads in my town and NONE are pay and display.

nobblyned

yeslek wrote: »

not always

there are a fair few marked bays on the sides or roads in my town and NONE are pay and display.

What I mean is marked bays mean you go and look for the sign, which will explain what is required (may or may not be pay and display). You can only assume no restrictions if there are no marked bays.

Butlers1982

but do you know that it will cost you more money to appeal against the fine than what it actually costs you?

students and therefore not visible

And i wouldnt use that as an argument to voice your side, as another post said, the onus is on you to ensure that where you are parking is charge free. The majority of places on a sea front are chargeable as people are attracted their-therefore there is a need for spaces and a need means a charge!
I dont think that you legally have any rights to be honnest, sorry

sarahg1969

All the advice about whether or not the OP should have been ticketed may be correct, BUT, the penalty is NOT payable if the ticket is not correctly worded.

And if he appeals, then the rejection may not be correctly worded.

Or, in fact, the signs about P&D may not be worded correctly in the first place.

Before giving in and paying, there are lots of avenues to consider.

Please, OP, get yourself off to https://www.pepipoo.com, and take some advice from the people on there. They are very, very helpful indeed.

nobblyned

sarahg1969 wrote: »

All the advice about whether or not the OP should have been ticketed may be correct, BUT, the penalty is NOT payable if the ticket is not correctly worded.

And if he appeals, then the rejection may not be correctly worded.

Or, in fact, the signs about P&D may not be worded correctly in the first place.

Before giving in and paying, there are lots of avenues to consider.

Please, OP, get yourself off to www.pepipoo.com, and take some advice from the people on there. They are very, very helpful indeed.

Why do people spend so much energy trying to get out of stuff when they are bang to rights?

If you parked and didn't pay, then pay the fine! It's only fair on the rest of us!

sarahg1969

" If you parked and didn't pay, then pay the fine!"

Firstly, it's not a fine. It's a penalty charge.

Secondly, if the boards are not correctly worded, then there has been NO contravention.

If there is no contravention, do you think in those circumstances that a person has a moral obligation to pay?

In the circumstances where councils are fully aware that their notices are wrong, and they are committing an offence by continuing to ticket vehicles, do you not think they have a moral, as well as a legal obligation, to cease ticketing until they have got their house in order?

If you DO pay for a ticket when a space is not the prescribed width, the board is wrong, or something else, and the parking charge is not enforceable, it's the council you should be cross with for making you pay when you shouldn't.

nobblyned

so if work found your contract was not correctly worded and they refused to pay you, you'd be fine with that?

When you park you don't check the wording and think "Hmm, that's wrongly worded, I probably don't have to pay"

If you park in a paying area - pay!