Apologies in advance if this has been dealt with, but a quick search did not reveal.
I've just had a council (as opposed to police) penalty notice handed to me as I arrived to drive off. I was unsure about the wisdom of jumping in and departing in a hurry, so I took it off the attendant (with some eyeball rolling), and was surprised to discover that although the offence is 'longer than permitted', the ticket does not specify the start and end time, only the time of issue + a 'reasonable cause to believe..' statement. I would normally assume the ticket wording is bulletproof, but shouldn't it say when the period was timed from?
As it happens, they've also got my registration slightly wrong, so I'm also wondering whether to lie low and wait to see if they work out where I live...
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He may have a photo of your car though.
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As it happens they've also got my registration slightly wrong
I'm not sure how they can find you, then - unless they've got your photo., and you post pictures of yourself on "social networking" sites doing 130 along the M4 motorway!
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CEO will most probably have taken a photo of your vehicle so if you do nothing then they will send Notice to Owner (RK) to you.
Confirm that they have put two dates on the ticket if they haven't then it is invalid.
www.tinyurl.com/jlrz8
dvd
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"and you post pictures of yourself "
Damn! I knew that was a mistake...
:-)
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A wrong registration no on the ticket makes it invalid regardless of any photo's that have been taken to support the PCN and theres a 99 percent chance you'll never hear anything about it again.
Appealing on the grounds of no observation times on the ticket can seem a little futile as the council will claim that the attendants notes show that the vehicle was observed and that the penalty charge still stands.
My latest ploy with the councils and their tickets is to refer the ticket to the parking and traffic appeals service after the appeal has been rejected by the local council.
They will send an appointment of hearing for some months in the future but in the following weeks the council will drop the case if its in any doubt about winning (for instance if you have some evidence)...
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"after the appeal has been rejected"
Should I wait to hear from them, or acknowledge receipt but point out the mistake? It's a very minor one, unfortunately (substitution of an I for a 1) but a parking attendant should know the difference, as i's aren't used, AFAIK!
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I notice there's no sense of dispute over the actual parking offence in your post. Tiresome as it is to get a parking fine - why not just pay up? It seems to me that all the effort involved (as one would have to assume any avoidance of paying this will stretch over several weeks to allow for its process) isn't worth the possible gain.
A calculation I often make involves estimating the worth of my time to me, socially, emotionally & economically, so forgive any assumptions I may or may not impute to your situation.
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"forgive any assumptions"
You're right, of course, but I rail against authorities who require me to get the letter of the law right (I had exceeded the time by a minute or two and arrived before the attendant had finished printing the ticket) but make mistakes themselves. I speak as one whose only speeding offence in 20 years took a year and 8 court appearances to resolve, and was finally done down by an old buffer in a tweed jacket who was grumpy because he was called back into court at 4pm!
£30 is quite a lot to me, in fact - it would make my shopping trip three times as expensive!
I do appreciate the thoughts, though. A bit of perspective correction is often useful...
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Woodbines - there are 2 aspects to the law, as a whole. Parliament or local authorities or any other bunch of wasters, create rules and regulations with which we are required to comply. So far so good. However they have to enforce these rules properly; thus parking tickets with the information recorded wrongly, obscured or illegal road signage and wrongly painted yellow lines cannot be enforced and should be appealed against. We have a vast army of people on reasonable salaries and good pensions - let them sweat and earn every penny they try to get out of us. If they can't enforce the law or prove an offence then there is no crime and no guilt.
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...but I rail against authorities who require me to get the letter of the law right (I had exceeded the time by a minute or two and arrived before the attendant had finished printing the ticket) but make mistakes themselves.
We have a vast army of people on reasonable salaries and good pensions - let them sweat and earn every penny they try to get out of us. If they can't enforce the law or prove an offence then there is no crime and no guilt.
Given that context, on review, I'd probably do the same - if only for the attention it would bring to the sloppy, but pernicaty parking regulation enforcement. Also, I hadn't understood the marginal nature of the 'offence'. My only thought would be to check that the ticket had all the information boxes filled - does the ticket have start/end time boxes & 2 (i.e. actual date & issue date) date spaces? The inccorect VRM will probably not offer protection - if they check or follow-up, you'd have to assume they'll check it with '1' rather than 'I'.
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"does the ticket have start/end time boxes"
Well, only an end time, which is what made me wonder. I know the attendant will have a note in her little book, but it seems a strange omission from a ticket intended to serve as notice of an offence. The two dates are present, unfortunately!
Many thanks for the feedback.
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I have since discovered that the parking bay (dotted line area) is incomplete, as one end of it has been recently tarmacked and no longer has the required end-of-bay markings, so I think the ticket is unenforceable anyway.
Having photographed the area, I also notice that there are old dotted yellow lines present from the previous era of regulations. Since these require different signage, they could be regarded as confusing - does anyone know if they are allowed to remain?
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