Penalty Charge Notice

KEEGANCARES

Hi, any advice much appreciated. Today I drove into London (Sunday) with my children to go to show.  We drove around for sometime looking for a free parking space as I was aware that parking was free on some ride locations on Sundays. We found a spot on Clifford street, there was no lines, no signs and no obvious reasons why I should not park there. We must have been gone for  less then 3 hours, on returning to the vehicle and on our amazement  we had received a ticket from the City of Westminster for £130 "Parked or loading / unloading  in a restricted street where waiting  and loading /unloading restrictions are in force".  To be honest there was a long line of cars who had received a ticket. The lady behind us was also shocked to receive a ticket and shouted that we should flight it. I walked the street again and couldn't find anything, there was however parking suspension notices the other side of the road, with bays clearly marked.  

Any helps really appreciated on how I should approach this.

Half_way

Do you have any photos of the site/area in which the vehicle was parked?

also the main knowledge base on this forum is on the private parking tickets - pepipoo has a dedicated council parking sub forum : http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30 you would be better off posting in there as well.

 A few things you will need - an email account that isnt hotmail ( form some )

photos of the area ( if you have them)

the front and rear of any ticket - with personal data removed ( ie name/address etc)

Dont be surprised of the initial appeal fails, however you can take things further until, unlike private tickets you get to an independent adjudicator

MalMonroe

This is not a parking charge notice, as is usually dealt with here but it's a penalty charge notice, issued by the council (ie not a private parking company). There should be some instructions on it somewhere as to how you can appeal.

If you didn't take photos of the area, you should try to take some (without parking for long!) to demonstrate the fact that there were no signs or any apparent restrictions.

I just had a quick google about parking in Westminster and there is so much contradictory information on the internet it's difficult to find out anything useful.

Have a good look through the notice you've been issued and if there's a number to ring, I'd do that tomorrow as all the info I've seen online seems to suggest that parking's free in Westminster on Sundays. But then again, there's info that says parking is free for only for two hours. As I say, contradictory as well as confusing as it's different for different areas and streets.

Although I don't know the area, or indeed London, well at all, I do agree with the lady behind you when she said you should all fight it. Perhaps Westminster needs a boost to its finances for Christmas but that's a lot of money for less than three hours' parking. 

But I'd definitely start with a phone call to find out what they're on about. 

PS I do hope it didn't spoil your day, or your children's, too much. A similar thing happened to me one pre-Christmas time and it's really cruel of them to be so mean!

MalMonroe

Oh, and I forgot to say that when it happened to me, I appealed it straight away and I did get it cancelled. Whether because it was Christmas or they realised that there wasn't adequate signage after all, I'm not sure. But it's well worth a try. Good luck, and a Merry Christmas  

Coupon-mad

Did you also make sure you paid the £15 Congestion Charge, which I think applies on Sundays now and you have to pay by the end of the day?

Someone will correct me if I am wrong:

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/congestion-charge

Jeez I would never drive into the City of Westminster and expect to find parking.  When my son was at Uni Halls in the Barbican I drove there on a Sunday to collect him in recent years, but only because the Uni halls had free parking with no PPC scammer, and it was before the C charge changed to include Sundays.

KEEGANCARES

Thanks for the responses. Yes we paid the congestion charge and ULEZ fee before we travelled.  Normally we would pay for a space in a car park, but we read on the internet about the free parking in Westminster. No signs and no lines, so I guess we thought it would be okay to park. I have got pictures which show no immediate signs.

TOP_CAT

Clifford st or any single meter of road lenght in the west end will be lined/marked and signed .

You stated...

"Clifford street, there was no lines, no signs and no obvious reasons why I should not park"

That statement must be incorrect .

At appeal I wouldnt state the above but perhaps the road signage was ambiguous...... or something like that .

Coupon-mad

But check with pepipoo first, they are the experts, as @Half_way advised you first:

the main knowledge base on this forum is on the private parking tickets - pepipoo has a dedicated council parking sub forum : http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30 you would be better off posting in there as well.

fisherjim

 There isn't much parking in Clifford Street but If this parking area is up near Saville Row those spaces (about four) were reserved for residents, is the rather small single sign missing?