Own Car Used For Business But Still A PCN

jcarver007

Hi All,

Looking for advice on following. I have received a number of pcn's in Lewes Sussex which I am challenging. These are issued by the council and have been when I have used a loading bay outside where I live. Signage state "Loading only 30 minutes Mon-Sat 8am -6pm".

My flat is up 4 flights of stairs at the top. I use my car to offload heavy boxes that are used for my business. I have also used it to offload an extremely heavy table on my own. The tickets have been issued whilst this has taken place. And on two occasions I had offloaded the boxes and placed them inside the front door rather than keeping car open or unloading one at a time.

I have challenged the tickets on the following basis:

That the signage states 30 minutes and does not mention anything about 5 minutes of continuous use being seen (which is the council's argument) I have also now found out that ticket wardens are told in training to give commercial vehicles 10 minutes and personal vehicles 5 minutes.

There is not a link to a website or anything else where further regulations can be viewed such as the continuous use. I would have thought that as anyone using the loading bay is entering into a contract with the council then the full terms and conditions should be given or viewable. I run my own business and when a client enters into a contract with me I have to give them the full terms and conditions before they agree - not produce terms afterwards.

I am on the top floor of the property and it is 4 flights of stairs. Moving large items is not easy for one person and can take 5 or more minutes. Also I have on occasion brought items downstairs and left them at the bottom of the stairs ready to take out to my car in one go rather than leaving the car unlocked and moving items one at a time.

East Sussex response was "The signage clearly states loading only 30 minutes no return within 1 hour (shown below). It does not state that you may park and is it not required to show the observation times. Therefore, loading or unloading must be continuous. It takes five minutes for a Civil Enforcement Officer (CEO) to issue a PCN, during this time if loading or unloading is taking place it will be observed by the CEO."

My question is, the council refused to cancel the pcn's, the Notice To Owner reply by myself was rejected too. Next step is an appeal to a parking adjudicator. How is this done and if this is not succesfull are there any other courses of action? Small claim against the council for incorrect procedures and causing stress?

I have often seen it stated that parking is entering into an agreement of contract. Surely that is the same with a loading bay as you are entering into the terms of use of the bay. If some of the terms are hidden and not viewable surely they are inadmissable?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated

Redx

as this is council you need to go to the experts

sign up on pepipoo forums using a gmail email address (NOT hotmail)

scan both sides of any paperwork and post your query and scans in their council pcn section

we major on private parking tickets on here, not council

Half_way

one thing: have you got business insurance on your own vehicle? it has no bearing on the parking tickets - but may have an impact in the future and is something that you need.