help please!!! re parking ticket.......

sjaypink

hi! just been into town, parked up and purchased a ticket........

when i got back to the car i had a penalty notice on the windscreen, the offence is 'valid ticket not visible' etc. :mad:

i didnt notice the penalty notice until i had got into the car, & when i looked the ticket was facing down.

i usually check after shutting the doors that the ticket is right way up/ visible, and im sure it was..................

so either im going mad and the ticket wasn't the right way up, or it flipped over when i got back in the car. to be fair the dash is in a bit of a mess & there are a few other old tickets, receipts, school letters etc on there too so it could have been that the traffic warden didnt see it.

anyhow, question is whats the best way of sorting this out? obviously i really can't afford to fork out £35/£70.................

has anyone got off a similar penalty? how shall i plea?!

thanks

edit to include;

new question!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

how does the council prove an offence has been committed? does the traffic warden take photos of the dash?

harveybobbles

Photocopy your valid ticket, enclose a copy of the days weather report (windy) and pojnt out that there was nothing that you could possibly do about Mother Nature.

sjaypink

harveybobbles wrote: »

Photocopy your valid ticket, enclose a copy of the days weather report (windy) and pojnt out that there was nothing that you could possibly do about Mother Nature.

ok thankyou!

does anyone know whether this will be enough?
- my council does have a huge successful appeal rate- about 40%, so im feeling hopeful now!

pandora205

I've had this happen to me twice, would you believe, both times when I was working? On both occasions I wrote to the parking company explaining that the ticket must have blown over/off dashboard in the wind.

The first time they let me off with a warning that this is discretionary and next time I would be fined. The second time I was fined!

Good luck - I think this is discretionary rather than 'law'.

Doozergirl

H did this at Christmas and they wrote back saying they wouldn't pursue the matter any further.

Good Luck!

geoffken

For goodness sake !!!!
Is it not reasonable for you to check after closing car door if ticket is THE RIGHT WAY UP !!!!.
additionally if warden can not reasonably identify ticket because of other debris then an offence has been comitted.

Otherwise you could place 1-1000 old tickets on any window and expect him to check !!!!them all..

pandora205

It's easily done. I usually check mine but obviously didn't on these occasions. Or maybe I did but the wind flipped them at the last second (as both happened on windy days).

tomstickland

Yes, so if they provide evidence of a valid ticket they should be not fined.
For goodness sake!

sjaypink

geoffken wrote: »

For goodness sake !!!!
Is it not reasonable for you to check after closing car door if ticket is THE RIGHT WAY UP !!!!.
additionally if warden can not reasonably identify ticket because of other debris then an offence has been comitted.

Otherwise you could place 1-1000 old tickets on any window and expect him to check !!!!them all..

yes thankyou very much for your very helpful opinion :rolleyes:
as i said in the original post, as far as i remember i did check and it was the right way up..................

and as for the 'debris', perhaps i have over exaggerated the issue here, the car is a toyota estima, the dash is the size of some small cars! there are some (4) old tickets and a couple of letters, but they are all pushed to the front on the drivers side, i placed the ticket on the top of the dash on the passenger (pavement) side, i cant see how it wasn't identifiable.

sjaypink

tomstickland wrote: »

Yes, so if they provide evidence of a valid ticket they should be not fined.
For goodness sake!

yep i dont know if im going to go for the 'wind- flipped over' thing now?

i am pretty sure it was the right way up and so i think i'll just say i have a valid ticket and i have no idea why i have been served with a penalty notice and see how it goes from there.

thanks everyone x

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Is it a private car park? If so, do a search on the forum.