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Two Council Tickets
JackieDaytona
Posts: 2 Newbie
Hi all,
I live in London and in 2025 had two tickets, one through the post and one on the car. Neither make any sense and I was hoping for some advice as they total £150, which i cant really afford right now. Thats with their 50% discounts.
The first was in Wimbledon through Merton Council. I parked in a pedestrial zone. Annoyingly i was less than 10 metres into this zone, but nevertheless, i did technically enter. Now this is where things get a bit complicated. The added annoyance of this is the street has two signs in close proximity that pretty much contradict each other. One is for the pedestrian times which is sometihng like 2.45pm - 4pm, and the other is the mon - fri parking permit times which is 11am-3pm. At that point, they might as well just make the permit time end at 4pm with the pedestrian timings to avoid confusion, especially as if you turn onto the street like i did, instead of approaching from head on, the signs are very easily missed.
This happned 27th January 2025. The first letter I got about this was in September when I received a letter of collection from a court, with the price being £205. Obviously I disputed this as it was the first I had heard of it, then it went back to its original state. When I looked at the timeline, this is when things started to not add up. I wont post the entire timeline because its quite long, but this is the key early parts.
I live in London and in 2025 had two tickets, one through the post and one on the car. Neither make any sense and I was hoping for some advice as they total £150, which i cant really afford right now. Thats with their 50% discounts.
The first was in Wimbledon through Merton Council. I parked in a pedestrial zone. Annoyingly i was less than 10 metres into this zone, but nevertheless, i did technically enter. Now this is where things get a bit complicated. The added annoyance of this is the street has two signs in close proximity that pretty much contradict each other. One is for the pedestrian times which is sometihng like 2.45pm - 4pm, and the other is the mon - fri parking permit times which is 11am-3pm. At that point, they might as well just make the permit time end at 4pm with the pedestrian timings to avoid confusion, especially as if you turn onto the street like i did, instead of approaching from head on, the signs are very easily missed.
This happned 27th January 2025. The first letter I got about this was in September when I received a letter of collection from a court, with the price being £205. Obviously I disputed this as it was the first I had heard of it, then it went back to its original state. When I looked at the timeline, this is when things started to not add up. I wont post the entire timeline because its quite long, but this is the key early parts.
13/10/2025 17:22:54 - On Hold: In Time G1
26/09/2025 09:50:53 - Notice of Debt Registration Issued
14/03/2025 10:00:11 - Charge Certificate Issued
10/02/2025 10:26:38 - PCN Issued
So the offence was 27th January. A PCN was issued on the 10th February. Then a charge certificate issued on 14th March. Now the bit that isn't adding up, and the bit i disputed was the 28 day rule of the offence and receiving the fine. If this history is correct, it means either one of the below is true.
1. Merton sent a letter for the PCN, then sent a letter for the charge certificate and neither was received. I find it unlikely two letters from the council would go missing.
2. They only sent one letter, likely the charge certificate, which would have been well of the 28 day rule of receiving the letter.
I used this in my dispute and the answer back was completely irrelevant. Instead whoever replied stated that the 28 day rule doesn't apply to the re-issue of the PCN, which happened in November. I'm now in a tough spot as the 50% discount will expire soon and I'm not really in a position to be paying double. But also, they didn't answer my actual dispute properly.
Is it possible to dispute after paying and keep the appeal going?
The second ticket is Hammersmith and Fulham.
I parked on a street a few Sundays ago when there was a match on. I had no idea there was a match on, I dont follow football. The sign had a mon-sat parking restriction, but then did mention event day restrictions of like 9am-10pm. I didn't see a single sign at any point mentioning there being an event day. I used this in my dispute that has been rejected and the reply was, in short, saying the onus is on me to check their website to see whether its an event day or not. I've used chatgpt for this and this is the counter argument, which i'm hoping someone can tell me if there's actually any basis for argument here.
So the offence was 27th January. A PCN was issued on the 10th February. Then a charge certificate issued on 14th March. Now the bit that isn't adding up, and the bit i disputed was the 28 day rule of the offence and receiving the fine. If this history is correct, it means either one of the below is true.
1. Merton sent a letter for the PCN, then sent a letter for the charge certificate and neither was received. I find it unlikely two letters from the council would go missing.
2. They only sent one letter, likely the charge certificate, which would have been well of the 28 day rule of receiving the letter.
I used this in my dispute and the answer back was completely irrelevant. Instead whoever replied stated that the 28 day rule doesn't apply to the re-issue of the PCN, which happened in November. I'm now in a tough spot as the 50% discount will expire soon and I'm not really in a position to be paying double. But also, they didn't answer my actual dispute properly.
Is it possible to dispute after paying and keep the appeal going?
The second ticket is Hammersmith and Fulham.
I parked on a street a few Sundays ago when there was a match on. I had no idea there was a match on, I dont follow football. The sign had a mon-sat parking restriction, but then did mention event day restrictions of like 9am-10pm. I didn't see a single sign at any point mentioning there being an event day. I used this in my dispute that has been rejected and the reply was, in short, saying the onus is on me to check their website to see whether its an event day or not. I've used chatgpt for this and this is the counter argument, which i'm hoping someone can tell me if there's actually any basis for argument here.
1. I did not see any CPZ entry signs stating “Event Today”.
2. The council has produced no evidence that such signs were displayed on that date.
3. A bay sign stating “event days only” does not tell a motorist whether today is an event day.
4. Drivers are not required to check council websites to determine whether parking restrictions apply.
5. The signage therefore failed to adequately convey the restriction in force, and the contravention did not occur.
0
Comments
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We deal with private parking charges on this forum rather than authority parking tickets you really need to take this to FTLA who are the experts on such cases:
3 -
oh, thank you. Didn't realise.2
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