Redbridge Town hall, machine out of order, Pcn issued

prosodyspeaks

Hi, thanks for any help you can offer...

TL-DR- machine out of order, Pcn issued, 28 days expires tomorrow (16/1/18), images attached .

On December 19th I parked in Ilford at Redbridge Town Hall.

When I arrived the machine was out of order. I looked around the carpark for another machine but did not find one (it was dark and bitterly cold and I was in a hurry - there may be a second machine but I tried in good faith and failed to find one.)

When I returned to my vehicle an hour and 15 minutes later the machine was working again and there was a Pcn on my window (photos attached )

I lost the pcn for some time and as the 28 day period will expire tomorrow I emailed Redbridge council at the weekend giving my reg, the time and date, and a photo of the machine out of order. (also attached)

I found the pcn this morning and phoned Redbridge expecting to talk to someone and have the pcn cancelled, but before I gave any info the automated system informed me that if machines are out of order I *must* pay by phone or park elsewhere, so I hung up to seek guidance...

I have never used the pay by phone option and assumed that the council have a responsibility to maintain their equipment if they want people to pay - it certainly never occurred to me that they could mandate payment by a method which requires users to have and operate specific equipment (i.e. A phone). in any case I didn't have any credit on my phone and assumed I'd be alright.

What's the law here - can the council exclude non mobile-owners?

I haven't logged an official informal appeal yet, I've seen some comments on other threads suggesting machine out of order may not be the best grounds for appeal and that there may be preferable alternative grounds - I've supplied the pcn images in the hope that someone can suggest the best course of action.

Thanks so much!

It seems I'm unable to post attachments so have uploaded to Google drive, links here:

Nope, can't post links either!
any way to actually share these images?!

Umkomaas

As we tend to major on private parking tickets here, PePiPoo will be your best bet for council tickets. Register there (but please note that a hotmail address won't work) and post a new thread; here's your link:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?act=SF&s=&f=30

Have a read through some of the other threads there before you post your own to get the hang of what information they need from you in your opening post - but as a minimum you will need to post redacted photos/scans of all correspondence you've received from the council (both sides, if appropriate) as they need to see all the small print.

PePiPoo has an excellent success record in dealing with council tickets.

HTH

prosodyspeaks

Ha! In the time it's taken to try and attach/post images the council has responded to my email:

"good Afternoon,



Thank you for your email.



Please take this email as confirmation that the notice was cancelled on the same day the notice was issued. I would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused."

Does this indicate they've seen maintenance records and cancelled all tickets while machine was down? In any case it's rather encouraging from a common sense/not requiring mobiles to park point if view...

prosodyspeaks

Thanks! As above, the council have been surprisingly helpful!

Umkomaas

That’s good news.