Disabled person parking outside a school on Boxing Day

fuseman

My 83 yr-old mother with significant mobility problems and a Blue Badge parked near some school gates on Boxing Day to attend a football match in Birmingham. The school yard itself is always used a a carpark for the football ground on match days and she has been parking in the same position - near the gates but not in any way obstructing them - for several years. Many other Blue Badge holders do the same.

She was given a PCN saying she had contravened the posted restrictions which state no stopping on entrance markings Mon-Friday from 8am to 4 pm (Boxing Day this year was a Wednesday).

Obviously nearly all matches are on Saturdays or in an evening which is why she has had no issues before.

Birmingham Council have refused to cancel the PCN saying it is a driver's responsibility to read and interpret the notices accurately - they simply will not accept that this is an unreasonable way to go about parking control.

In addition my mother sent a cheque for £35 (the 'discounted offer') in order to only risk £35 if any appeal failed but the Council won't accept this and say if she appeals she risks losing £70.

They have listed 9 statutory grounds for appeal under the Traffic Management Act 2004 - most of which don't apply. The only one which seems relevant to me is ground 9 "If there are any other reasons why you consider the Council shoudl cancel the penalty charge and and refund any sum already paid'.

My argument under Ground 9 would be that a reasonable person would conclude that the restriction was to protect the school when it was or may be operating and that this would not include a Bank Holiday when the school was being used as a car park as it always is on match days.

I might also argue that the Council should accept the £35 offered in any event to reduce the risk to my mother of paying £70 - if they don't what is the actual meaning of Ground 9 '...refund any sum already paid'?

I've had a number of successful appeals and challenges to private PCNs but have no relevant experience of challenging or appealing Council PCNs.

Any advice as to whether this appeal is worth pushing would be much appreciated. In particular does anyone know how Traffic Penalty Tribunals operate - do they take a strictly legalistic approach or will they consider the particular circumstances?

elsien

If it's a council ticket, the advice is generally to head over to pepipoo is it's their area of expertise.

This forum is more used to dealing with the private parking scammers so will probably be of less help with your specific situation.

Umkomaas

As we 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 - try using a gmail account instead if you do have trouble registering) 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

fuseman

Thanks - I've posted my query on that site now.