So, I park on the side of the and buy an hour of parking from the pay and display machine. Display the ticket, everything’s good.
Return 55 mins later to see an enforcement notice. I look at the time on the enforcement notice, it says 09.40. look at the time on the pay and display machine, it says 09.25. My ticket says 09.30.

I challenge it, they reject the challenge.

I don’t mind paying the fine, to be honest the local council (south of the river) probably need the money, but WHERE IS THE JUSTICE?
Anyone had any similar / other dodgy experiences / advice?

to clarify – was the machine or the tickets displaying the wrong time or had the person writing the notice falsified the time on the notice?

[closing stable door]

did you take picture of ticket next to incorrect time on ticket machine?

[/closing stable door]

what grounds did they reject the appeal on?

The former, the machine and ticket were ~15 mins slower (although I can’t confirm that the person writing the notice had the correct time, but I did return at a time after the notice had allegedly been written)

I did take a photo on a disposable camera of the ticket, the enforcement notice and the machine, I haven’t had these developed yet.
They rejected it on grounds that it is my responsibility to return before the time on the ticket (Which I did, according to the machine that issued the ticket).

I’ve never heard of a council accepting an informal challenge. You usually have to go through the whole process, to the point of arbitration (and often they drop just before that stage)

I was working at a new solicators office very near Tower bridge.
I found a parking space, no yellow or white lines and no signs saying i couldn’t park there.
A traffic warden was passing and i actually asked him to confirm it was ok which he did.
For some reason i noticed his warden number on his shoulder.
Returned 30 mins later to find that the same dude who had ok’d my parking had given me a ticket!!!!!

Do they get a performance bonus? If they do we will continue to get stitched up until they don’t.

I did take a photo on a disposable camera of the ticket, the enforcement notice and the machine, I haven’t had these developed yet.

I’d get those done and make a formal appeal, then?

and often they drop just before that stage

you can take them all the way to court…. then sit there on your own as they won’t bother to turn up. My dad had a wrangle over a small council carpark in Ormskirk that only has one machine. The machine wasn’t working so nobody was able to buy a ticket. Having tried and failed to buy a ticket and had discussions with other shoppers trying to do the same they all gave up and went shopping. Then all came back to find fines slapped on their cars. They decided to challenge it but one by one people folded and paid the fines, my dad was the only one who stuck with it. Having been told numerous times that he was a lier, that he and all the other shoppers must have been using counterfeit coins and with each rebuff being accompanied with a larger fine he stuck with it all the way to court. The council simply didn’t attend.

When you say you’d challenged it, do you mean in writing?

Once a ticket is issued its in the system, so they can’t rescind it. However, if you write to them, then they have to investigate it

I had the same thing happen to me. I disputed it in writing. I had a reply saying that though they still thought it had been correctly issued, they would not be pursuing it

Get on the pepipoo website forum. They’re experts there.

Do they get a performance bonus? If they do we will continue to get stitched up until they don’t.

Strictly speaking they should both enforce parking legislation and ensure that its enforceable. If lines are absent, if signs are missing or defaced or obscured then its their job to observe and report that. But they’ll only admit that its their job if you turn up with a documentary crew. In the case above my dad was told there was a notice in the carpark telling people what to do if the machine was out of order (to walk to the town hall and buy a ticket there and walk back apparently). He went back to find the sign. He was 6’4″ , the sign was above and behind the ticket machine, he had to hold a camera above his head and take a picture of it to read it.

I got done in Carlisle some years back

Free disc parking, disc prominently displayed with the correct time on it etc. Still got a ticket, which I appealed and lost.

The only thing I can think of was it was a new registration car on the first day they were out and there was an informal competition going on with the wardens. 🙂

the sign was above and behind the ticket machine, he had to hold a camera above his head and take a picture of it to read it.

Quality.

“But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months.”
>”Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything.”
>”But the plans were on display …”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
>”That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
>”Ah, well the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
>”But look, you found the notice didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard’.”

I’ll write to them, ta.

As a point of law how can the authorities prove you ever received a parking ticket? Sure they can slap it on your windscreen and take as many photo’s of it as they like before they go after their next victim. But none of that proves that you actually received the notice of the fine. It might have blown away. Some on else might have pulled it off your windscreen, the possiblities are endless

As a point of law how can the authorities prove you ever received a parking ticket?

you don’t have to have received it – as in they don’t have to stick anything on your car, the sticker is just a notification. A colleague of mine got done while loading in inverness, nothing put on the car, just a letter later.