Advice much appreciated :)

savagevixen

Hi all

In essence a few years ago, I successfully ignored a charge from TPS. They limped with their case for around 12 months then gave up. I was quite confident throughout my ignoring of their nasty red letters. Now I am confused by the information.

Last year my son was very poorly and in Bristol Childrens Hospital. I drove him there in the night and parked in the short stay bays. My car received a ticket from TPS. Only 1 for the 4 days it was parked there. I didnt get back to my vehicle at all until the fourth day as you simply can't leave a sick baby. I found the attendant man and he was lovely, said I should've put a note in the windscreen and tore up the ticket.

Roll on to last Sunday. 111 order me to either accept an ambulance or take my sick child to hospital within 1 hour. I choose to drive mainly because I knew an ambulance was an unnecessary waste of resources. Usually there is road parking on a sunday, but this was all taken. All of the bays by the entrance to the BCH were free so I parked there and rushed her in. I left a note on the dashboard. It should be noted that this is an a&e department and all the other local hospitals use county council parking. There was nowhere I could park and carry a sick heavy 5 year old to a&e. On leaving the hospital with meds and a still poorly child I found a lovely TPS invoice. £30 or £60 in 14 days.

Then last night (tues morn) at 1am I was told to take my daughter straight back to a&e as her symptoms had worsened and she had signs of meningitis or septicemia. I drove there and parked again in the empty bays, again leaving a note saying 'emergency and in childrens a&e' Staff in the hospital said it would be fine overnight. After tests and a change in medication. We were released at 10am. Another ticket had been stuck to my window, and they had removed the other plastic ticket holder, I had left there.

I was going to write and appeal, but it seems futile. Is there anything I can do?

Many many thanks, looking after sick little one today and gutted about the tickets.

Redx

depends on which part of the country this happened in, which AOS the PPC is a member of and various other details you havent elaborated on in your lengthy post but I am assuming is england due to mentioning Bristol

if its england and wales, then POFA 2012 moved the goalposts

in any case, read and follow the NEWBIES thread at the top of this forum as it tells you all you need to know and contains the latest information in order to stop any confusion

as for previous tickets, they are only "spent" after 6 years in england and wales (5 in scotland)

bazster

Your first port of call should be the hospital's Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS). Ask them just what you were supposed to do in the circumstances, and request that they get the tickets cancelled.

Coupon-mad

I was going to write and appeal, but it seems futile. Is there anything I can do?

Never futile, not sure why you think so. You need to read the NEWBIES sticky thread and when this latest ticket gets the first letter sent in August, the keeper sends the template appeal. the keeper could add something about the situation but only a line and not naming the driver nor implying if it was the keeper themselves.

You should indeed be contacting PALS (Google them) while you wait for the NTK.