Fighting a legitimate PCN from the council?

Chriswt

Does anyone have any tips when appealing against a PCN issued by the council?

Its £110 for parking on a restricted during the prescribed hours. Basically my wife didn’t get back to her car in time and a ticket was issued at 14:05 (observed for zero minutes) as the restricted hours are 14:00 to 15:00 every week day.
Apart from the high cost I’ve not got a big issue with the ticket other than she was parked outside a North London hospice where she is currently enjoying the pleasure of watching her 60 year old mum die an excruciatingly painful death from pancreatic cancer not to mention trying to help her come to terms with the fact she has a couple of months left to live.
As my wife also have an 8 month baby in tow clock watching isn’t her biggest priority and she was so angry that the inspector could just pop his head into reception and ask if it wasn’t a visitors car as I have witnessed other inspectors doing (clearly they have a heart!).
Basically in essence it’s a ‘fair cop’ but under the circumstances I would like to be as awkward as possible just to make myself feel better especially as Barnet outsource all their parking control these days.

Any ideas before we pay the £55 fee?

Thank you

Fergie76

Go to http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30 they are the experts for Council tickets.

Chriswt

It would appear that if the PCN was issued as a result of parking in a restricted street during prescribed hours then an observation time is required.

My wifes ticket had none i.e observed from 14:05 to 14:05.

Are councils legally tied to observation times as a code 01 needs an observation time of 5 minutes...or does it???

The_Deep

Councils enforce these restrictions rigidly as a revenue source. So much so that almost 65% of tickets which are appealed are cancelled, in many cases, councils do not even bother to put up a case at appeal.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3526617

Coupon-mad

Chriswt wrote: »

It would appear that if the PCN was issued as a result of parking in a restricted street during prescribed hours then an observation time is required.

My wifes ticket had none i.e observed from 14:05 to 14:05.

Are councils legally tied to observation times as a code 01 needs an observation time of 5 minutes...or does it???

Not legally tied but yes it's a valid appeal point as Councils are expected to observe a car for 5 minutes to discount the possibility of exempt activity like loading/unloading. So it's possible you 'could' claim that exemption if those final 5 minutes comprised your wife collecting up any bags of clothes to wash or belongings and bringing them from her room out and loading them into the car, from her mother.

Ask the pepipoo experts - almost every poster wins on that forum!