O/T Parking Ticket

[Barrel of Fun]

Does anyone have any sort of success with appealing them?

I was issued a parking ticket in Brighton, not so long ago, and I wrote to them the same day to appeal. I have just received a letter saying they still expect me to pay.

I DID buy a ticket and I did place it on the dashboard. However, as they are no longer adhesive tickets, it must have blown in the wind when I shut the door and it ended upside down.

Now, £25 isn't a huge amount to pay, but it is the principle of the matter.

Should I risk going further or just pay the £25 now?

As an aside, on the parking ticket, it does say 'place on the dashboard', but it didn't stipulate which way up.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Never done it (I've never had one), but people tend to say, always appeal parking tickets - nothing to lose.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

I was a Parking Attendant for 2 and a half years, and worked a little bit in the Parking Shop at the Town Hall. Was this your first parking ticket? If so, the council generally will let lit slide for something innocous like this, but it depends on how many appeals they've allowed aswell. I would continue to contest the ticket, because as soon as the £25 becomes more than they will have to pay in administrative costs, they'll probably let it drop. They only really start chasing people when they have 5 or more tickets outstanding, then the tow truck becomes involved... But until then, it's not a big deal really, so long as you aren't ignoring it altogether.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

I was a Parking Attendant for 2 and a half years, and worked a little bit in the Parking Shop at the Town Hall. Was this your first parking ticket? If so, the council generally will let lit slide for something innocous like this, but it depends on how many appeals they've allowed aswell. I would continue to contest the ticket, because as soon as the £25 becomes more than they will have to pay in administrative costs, they'll probably let it drop. They only really start chasing people when they have 5 or more tickets outstanding, then the tow truck becomes involved... But until then, it's not a big deal really, so long as you aren't ignoring it altogether.

Thanks for the advice. I have had two Brighton parking tickets in the last 6 years. One appeal was successful as they simply slapped a ticket on when I had done absolutely nothing illegal. The other was not waking up in time to move my car - I was waiting on the list for a permit for 12 months

I am tempted to push it as I made every effort to park legally and purchased a ticket.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I appealed against a parking ticket (not in Brighton) when they were adhesive. It was a hot day and the adhesive must have 'melted' as the ticket became unstuck and fell onto the floor of the car. I got back, found the parking ticket and went to the town hall straight away. It was still within the two hours allowed, I had proof that I'd bought a ticket (the adhesive was tacky) and they let me off.

 

[1066familyman]

Did you photocopy your ticket and send that to them when you appealed ?

The only fine I ever received I appealed and did precisely this, whilst informing them that I still had the original should they happen to 'lose' the photocopy I included. My appeal was successful and just came with a pathetic wagging finger naughty boy letter telling me I should be more careful next time.

So..if you still have the ticket, photocopy it and send it in with another appeal. As you say, it's more about the principal than the money.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Appeal. I received a ticket in a farcical scenario once but the vehicle was 100% parked on double yellows, i wrote to them and explained and they cancelled the ticket.

 

[brunswick]

put it in the bin and send them a letter saying why ur not paying - say this is the only letter you will send, and that it is final....ignore all letters.....and it goes away.

stick to your principles.....f00k fear.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

The fact you had a ticket is massively in your favour, and so it should be. It's not as if you didn't make the effort to comply with the parking regulations, the council have to accept that the P&D tickets are rubbish, they'll blow all over the place if you aren't careful.

One other bit of advice I'd have given pre-appeal would be to check the details on the ticket are correct. The amount of tickets that have been squashed because the wrong make of car was processed incorrectly is incredible. Same with the code the ticket was issued under, that's often wrong. A few years ago now, when the new Traffic Management Act came in, the code for issuing tickets changed slightly for cases like your one. Instead of being a code 06, it became either a code 12 or 19 depending on what you'd done. And believe me, A LOT of mistakes were made by the attendants. Your ticket should have been a code 19 because you had a ticket, but it couldn't be read. It was probably issued correctly though, because a code 12 would have meant a minimum payment of £35, as it is the more "serious" offence of the two.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Appeal, appeal and appeal.

Do NOT pay yet - wait until you've exhausted the appeal process. They have to freeze the ticket until the appeal is over so you can't rack up extra costs. If it goes as far, make sure you go for the personal hearing. It's very straight forward and very unscary - more often than not the council tie themselves in knots in the meeting ( it is actually scary how stupid the people they send are !!!! ). I've appealled twice and won twice.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Brilliant. Thanks chaps. I shall push on with my crusade.

 

[LadySeagull]

put it in the bin and send them a letter saying why ur not paying - say this is the only letter you will send, and that it is final....ignore all letters.....and it goes away.

stick to your principles.....f00k fear.

I'm sure that was tongue-in-cheek but funnily enough - except for wasting a stamp on a pointless letter - that's the 100% correct advice for PRIVATE parking so-called 'tickets' anyway. Ignore them because they are scam fines - and then ignore their scary letters, nothing happens, been there done that and I now post on MSE to tell people to ignore them! Do pm me for advice if anyone ever gets one (at a Supermarket, Railway station, retail park, block of non-Council flats etc), if anyone on here pays one you've been had and I will scream!

But with a Council ticket you must not ignore any letters, you must meet all appeal deadlines and get it to the adjudicator (3 stages of appeal). Surprisingly, the majority of cases that reach that far are either cancelled as the Council can't be bothered to defend themselves, or the adjudicator finds in favour of the motorist. Add to that that many bays in Brighton & Hove are non-complaint or non-existent and that many PCNs and Traffic Orders have wording flaws - and you can see you have a good chance.

Also bear in mind the only 'risk' you take is possibly being told by the adjudicator to pay the full fine (non-discounted) in a few months time if you don't win. No extra costs, no escalating amount, no bailiff, nothing scary as long as you meet deadlines.

The best place to show a pic of the front & back of your PCN is pepipoo forums (strange name but they are the experts). It's a free advice forum for motorists who get any sort of ticket and they help get most people off. Linked below is the parking board you will need to post on (just blank off your car reg and PCN number, leave all dates, location and all small print on the back of the PCN in clear view). Also show them a pic of the lines & signs where you parked - or a Google Street view link if you can't get a pic.

FightBack Forums -> Parking and Decriminalised Notices

Oh, and your scenario is known to adjudicators as a 'fluttering ticket' (Google it along with 'parking adjudicator' as one search) and if you look at Pearly11's thread on pepipoo which was only started last week, you will see lots of advice for you to follow as she is in the same situation as you. But start your own thread, don't reply on hers, pepipoo need to keep all cases separate for clarity of advice.


HTH




P.S. I am Coupon-mad on MSE (moneysavingexpert) and SchoolRunMum on pepipoo if you want to see my posts. I would personally appeal ANY Council parking ticket thru all 3 stages even if I was bang to rights, what's to lose?

 

[1959]

my mistake, see below

 

[1959]

put it in the bin and send them a letter saying why ur not paying - say this is the only letter you will send, and that it is final....ignore all letters.....and it goes away.

stick to your principles.....f00k fear.

It used to work like that, but it doesn't anymore.

Last time I tried this approach with a £30 fine, a man showed up on my doorstep several months later, with a tow-truck in the street, boxing in my car. He wanted £250 on the spot or he'd take the car and I'd have to pay double to get it back.

 

[MattBackHome]

My record with appeals:

P3 W2 L1 Trips to Hove Town Hall:4 Total Saving: £60 (I think)

Go for it!

 

[1066familyman]

Brilliant. Thanks chaps. I shall push on with my crusade.

Good for you BOF. You are in the right here and as Brunswick says - "stick to your principles....f00k fear"

 

[Mtoto]

Problem you have is that simply buying the ticket does not fulfil your part of the contract. You are also obliged to ensure that it is clearly displayed too, and if it wasn't, it will take 10 seconds to dismiss your appeal. Same thing happened to me in Lewes when parking in a howling gale and rainstorm, but despite no end of argument, I had to pay in the end.

 

[brunswick]

It used to work like that, but it doesn't anymore.

Last time I tried this approach with a £30 fine, a man showed up on my doorstep several months later, with a tow-truck in the street, boxing in my car. He wanted £250 on the spot or he'd take the car and I'd have to pay double to get it back.

wow, i am so glad i left england a few years ago.....its nazi'd up there for sure....

b) buy a car second hand - don't register it.
c) search utube for "the right to travel" - deregister your car - and then you do not CONSENT to the "traffic acts" and become exempt - need to do certain things go - this is growing in the USA.

 

[LadySeagull]

Problem you have is that simply buying the ticket does not fulfil your part of the contract. You are also obliged to ensure that it is clearly displayed too, and if it wasn't, it will take 10 seconds to dismiss your appeal. Same thing happened to me in Lewes when parking in a howling gale and rainstorm, but despite no end of argument, I had to pay in the end.

No you are not if the Traffic Order or Parking Places Order doesn't have a condition that a motorist has to 'continuously display'. Many are missing that wording so if so, there is no contravention. There are also tons of other flaws on which you can appeal a Council ticket!

And you don't contravene a sign, you can only contravene a Traffic Order. See my post above for pepipoo experts link.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Problem you have is that simply buying the ticket does not fulfil your part of the contract. You are also obliged to ensure that it is clearly displayed too, and if it wasn't, it will take 10 seconds to dismiss your appeal. Same thing happened to me in Lewes when parking in a howling gale and rainstorm, but despite no end of argument, I had to pay in the end.

Although the council often stops chasing if they can see it's likely to end up at adjudication because all they get is the original fine and nothing for all the extra costs they incur in chasing it. In the current climate I would have thought if BoF made it clear he will go all the way they may well just give up.