PCN in Edinburgh on foreign plates

mattpreece87

Hi,

I've recently moved back to Edinburgh after spending the last two years in France and i've brought back my car. It was originally registered in the UK but when I took it to France, I re-registered it over there. Since being back in the UK, I have started the process of re-registering it here (MOT, Insurance, documents from DVLA etc), I just haven't sent them off yet.

Yesterday, I noticed a PCN from the council attached to my windscreen. The car was parked outside my flat on the main road. Opposite my block of flats, there is a library. Directly outside the library there is on street parking with white lines that make up roughly three spaces for disabled parking.

The ticket has been issued for having my back wheel parked 10cm over the white line. The day this happened, the library was closed. The reason this happened was as I parked, I reversed a little to give the car in front enough space to get out of his/her space.

Now I find these tickets very petty indeed! Considering the circumstances of these particular spaces being reserved for disabled library customers, I find it even more ridiculous as the library was closed on this day.

Now my question. If my car was registered in the UK with UK plates, I would be challenging this. However, it is still on French plates and will most likely be for the next 6 weeks so i'm thinking to not bother with the hassle as they most likely can't trace me or am I wrong in thinking that?

I'm not the kind of person to take advantage of having foreign plates (speeding, parking wherever I want etc), but as this is a very petty ticket, I feel like just ignoring it.

Any advice would would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Matt

P.S sorry for the long winded post for something so simple.

Fruitcake

Normally, Council tickets are best dealt with over on pepipoo.com as they are the experts in that sort of thing whereas we tend to concentrate on private paring tickets.

Having said that, I would wait to see what happens. I suspect that even if the local government had a way of accessing the French equivalent of the DVLA, the address would come up as the one in France.

I don't understand the comment about the disabled bays. Are you saying you parked in one or that your car was slightly over one?

mattpreece87

Fruitcake wrote: »

Normally, Council tickets are best dealt with over on pepipoo.com as they are the experts in that sort of thing whereas we tend to concentrate on private paring tickets.

Having said that, I would wait to see what happens. I suspect that even if the local government had a way of accessing the French equivalent of the DVLA, the address would come up as the one in France.

I don't understand the comment about the disabled bays. Are you saying you parked in one or that your car was slightly over one?

Thanks for the reply, i'll have a look at the website you mentioned.

I've taken a screenshot of the parking in question so I hope it uploads.
Basically, my back wheel was about 10cm over the line and into the disabled section on the right hand side of the picture. I wasn't parked in the disabled bit, I guess my back wheel was though.

http://imgur.com/a/KAHSN

Like I said, the only reason I was slightly in it was to give the car in front of me more space to get out. Trying to be thoughtful and all that gets you nowhere I guess. In the future i'll not give a crap about other people i guess.

nigelbb

mattpreece87 wrote: »

I would be challenging this. However, it is still on French plates and will most likely be for the next 6 weeks so i'm thinking to not bother with the hassle as they most likely can't trace me or am I wrong in thinking that?

Just ignore it. The council have no way of tracing you.

beamerguy

nigelbb wrote: »

Just ignore it. The council have no way of tracing you.

Totally agree, as far as the council are concerned it will be a foreign visitor and a parking warden without brains

mattpreece87

nigelbb wrote: »

Just ignore it. The council have no way of tracing you.

Thats what i'm thinking. Insurance is through the VIN number, not number plate, they have no way of finding my address (I think) plus it will be on UK plates in 6 weeks hopefully.

mattpreece87

beamerguy wrote: »

Totally agree, as far as the council are concerned it will be a foreign visitor and a parking warden without brains

The following day, another car had done exactly the same as myself and also had a ticket. Most likely the same person hitting their same spots and getting a kick out of it.

beamerguy

mattpreece87 wrote: »

Thats what i'm thinking. Insurance is through the VIN number, not number plate, they have no way of finding my address (I think) plus it will be on UK plates in 6 weeks hopefully.

By the time they wish to find out from the DVLA who is the RK, they will see they cannot.
Some of these councils operate a "stupidity policy" so they may send a reminder to your french address if they bother to waste public money and go that far

The_Deep

If you live in Reading, I can assure you that the Council will throw taxpayers money at ait. I was wrongly issued a PCN which was cancelled at PATAS, asked them for £100, (half to charity), they refused, and it has now gone to the LGO.

beamerguy

The_Deep wrote: »

If you live in Reading, I can assure you that the Council will throw taxpayers money at ait. I was wrongly issued a PCN which was cancelled at PATAS, asked them for £100, (half to charity), they refused, and it has now gone to the LGO.

Mr Deep, whilst Cllr Tony Page is around nothing will change, his finger print is already on the misuse of money at RBC
A child could run traffic and parking better

The_Deep

Thank you Mr B, I am fully aware of Mr P's activities, past and present.