Resident parking permit for temporary car got us a ticket - what would you do?

Hi all,

Our permanent car was involved in accident and is currently being repaired. We were given a temporary hire car for 2 weeks. 

A few months ago we also had to take a temporary hire car and the parking inspector at the time advised us to place the resident parking permit for the permanent car inside the hire car and leave a note explaining the situation (i.e. permanent car being repaired at the moment, here is the permit for that car, thanks for understanding). 

This time we followed the same advice and today we got a parking ticket. Clearly the inspector today either didn't see the note (which can't be the case as it is directly next to the permit) or he/she decided to ignore it and still issued a ticket. 

I wanted to ask you for some advice. What can/should we do apart from appealing the ticket?

I tried to reach the council the day before we got the hire car to get some guidance but of course the phones were busy and the line disconnected. So i wrote an email but it will take up to 10 working days for a reply and we will probably have our usual car back by then. 

Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks a lot

Dominik