Mrs Removed went to an event in Gateshead today and parked in a council run carpark. There were three ticket machines in the car park – one had an out of order message displayed on its screen, and the other two just returned all coins put in. I'm guessing they were full?

She went off to The Sage (where the event was) and told the desk staff. They advised her to put a note on her dashboard (she did) and said they would phone the council to let them know (council run car park).

She went back to the car later that day to find a ticket – barstewards. The ticket was put on an hour after the car was parked and advised that the car had been observed for two minutes.

What a load of t0ss – surely thios is contestable?

contestable.

should be a phone number on the machine, if you call it and explain the machines aren't working and give them your reg #, they will give you a code to display in your windscreen. hey presto, no ticket.

bit late now i would suspect

Goan – Member

contestable.

I would agree.

But the best way is

flatfish – Member

should be a phone number on the machine, if you call it and explain the machines aren't working and give them your reg #, they will give you a code to display in your windscreen. hey presto, no ticket.

Which I've done before. It worked very well as my car wasn't ticketed whilst others were.

I've never bothered myself. Must have been lucky I guess. If the machine is broke I just go and leave it there, no ticket.

Cheers chaps – letter written. Quite mild given the circs, but will let loose if they don't drop it…….

If there are instructions on the machine on what to do if it is broken,and you didn't follow them,you're stuffed.
Ian

As it's run by the council, everything they do is covered by the freedom of information act. Although you should have called them yourself to leave reg details when you found the machine empty, the council will have a repair log for those machines. You'll be able to request a copy of that repair log, plus a day or two to see when they were repaired/visited. The council will probably reject your appeal but if what your other half told you is true, it's worth taking to the next level which is TPT (who are not linked to the council and it seems, very rarly find in their favour).

Yep you offered money and they broke the contract or sumfink like that innit?

What can tara do about it, Onza?

I see what you did there! She's got enough money to pay the fine for you!

me thumping hell out of machine – say to man behind me "its not working"

him "I know – i've come to fix it"

Best advice will be found here: http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30

Probably shouldn't have written the letter before posting on pepipoo

Also, who is the contracted enforcing agent taken on my the local authority? I know who who in their SOP include testing the machines before issuing tickets. Depending on where they are, they carry tokens or devices for doing this.

Aha! I knew there'd be a SIG type forum for peeved recipients of tickets, so cheers for that Bob! Cheers also to all who have chipped in.