save on parking tickets!

alooof

:eek: you've just come back to your car and you've found a ticket there for £40, £60 or £80 (depending on your local council and when you pay) and that money could have paid for legitimate parking many times over

of course the most obvious answer is dont park illegally - it does normally take a bit more effort to drive around and find a spot (and possibly a slightly longer walk) but there's ALWAYS free parking somewhere!

its hard to have sympathy for people who get parking tickets, as we all know the rules. people who clearly break the rules deserve to get fined (because this means that the council can raise their extra money from people who chose to park illegally). if someone parks on double yellow lines or thinks they wont get caught if they're quick, i'd rather the wardens hit their targets from these guys.
however careful you are, you may still get a ticket. earlier this year (thanks to a slow watch and hyperactive kids) i ended up getting back to my car 3 minutes after the pay and display had expired. I told the attendant, who had just finished issuing the ticket, that I had to run for 15 minutes to get to the nearest shop to break a note to put in the machine. he said that once the ticket is processed he cant do anything from there, but he promised to adjust it back at the depot later at night. when i checked with the council, he hadnt done anything of the sort, so i wrote a letter to appeal. i just got a reply from them saying that the ticket still stood but because they took 5 months in responding, they cancelled it 'as an act of goodwill'

i once read an article in the paper saying BT and royal mail had the highest number of parking tickets in london, but BT's policy was to appeal each one and got let off around 30-40% of the time.

if you get a ticket, you should ALWAYS appeal - even if you were in the wrong you may get lucky!
and if you cant afford a parking ticket at the time, write a letter to appeal and the grace period (ie half price for the first 2 weeks) is put on hold until they reach a decision. because this is usually takes a while, you can plan to raise the money in the meantime

and, just for your info, the one excuse they cant argue with is if your car has broken down and AA/RAC etc come out to you they will issue you with a note that you send in with your ticket to get it cancelled

kinc

Got a ticket tonight, I'm appealing on the grounds of the yellow lines are not continuous.

Do I need to send appeal registered or can I deliver by hand?

I work for Royal Mail so I know the address (po box).

alooof

i faxed it and posted it at the same time
broken yellow lines that are dodgy! i've seen that when they've tried to remove the restrictions but didnt clearly remove the lines

photos are always important too! just as how the parking attendant now takes pics, so should you to strengthen your case!