Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Confusing pay & display / business bays on ladder roads - any successful challenges?
My sister-in-law has had an appeal refused for a parking ticket received when visiting us. As we had no visitor permits (due to closure of payment centre and council taking three weeks to send them out by post - grrr) she spent most of her visit running up and down the ladder reparking her car, pouring money into meters and still ended up with one ticket (that could easily have been more!)
She parked very close (5m) to the pay and display sign at the bottom of our road not noticing the faded line marking the end of the pay and display bay about 4m from the sign, so was actually in the business bay. The outside of the two bays are marked with a continuous unbroken line and they appear the same. The business bay sign is a fair bit further up so this seems unfairly confusing.
Has anyone else been caught out by this, and has anyone successfully appealed? She is ready to pay the fine but given the efforts and costs we made to play by the rules it all seems most unfair!
Tags for Forum Posts: parking
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by james walsh on
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Unless there is a clerical mistake, wrong adress, name spelled wrong or time of day/date wrong etc, there's little you can do. If you like you can contact me and i'll walk you through it with you. PM me and i'll give you my phone number.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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I don't want to cut across James' generous offer of advice. But can I make a couple of suggestions?
When your sister-in-law makes her representations to the Parking Service, as well as explaining the full context - i.e. the closure of the Payment Centre and delays in sending you visitors' permits - I'd also suggest including photos of the faded lines.
The general issue seems a further example of the discussion here. When people are trying as best they can, to follow, not fiddle the system.
Two years ago I had a long and, as usual, completely fruitless email correspondence with Haringey's (then) Chief Executive. It included my suggestion that monitoring and refreshing badly faded parking lines should be a priority call on the parking income.
I'd had hoped this lesson had since been learned.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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I agree with Alan. There is another but more difficult grounds for appeal called 'mitigating circumstances'. If you can argue reasonably that you have parked illegally because there was 'no other choice', you could have the PCN cancelled but only at the councils discretion. I'd call that a long shot in this case but let's see ? Normal grounds would be something like a medical or other type of emergency or mercy mission. Argueing that the lines are broken is a weak argument in my opinion. But again, let's see ?
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Permalink Reply by GillianM on
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Thanks for your suggestions everyone. To be fair the lines are not that faded; the issue was more the proximity of the pay & display sign meaning she did not think to look at the ground (as well as not being used to the complexities of parking in London!). The same warden almost booked her later that day when he found tickets for two consecutive hours on her dashboard with the later one starting 4 minutes after the earlier one expired.... To be honest it is quite embarrassing thing to happen with a visitor; between us we paid for about £12 of parking that day and despite our best endeavours she still ended up with a £55 fine.
One of the photos she prepared for the council attached... This was sent with a detailed explanation of the situation. Shall have a look at the linked threads tomorrow and get back to her though I am unsure if my tale of woe with the payment centre will melt any hearts! Do you know - once you have had one appeal refused are you liable to pay the full £110 if you take it further and are unsuccessful, or can you still pay the reduced fine?
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Gillian, I suggest you click here for the page on the Council's website which explains the various stages after people get a parking ticket (PCN). (Although it could be a bit clearer about the difference between an "appeal" and a "representation".) It explains about the time period for the discount rate.
You may also find it helpful to read through the discussion thread here.
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Gillian* I'll assume you're sorted now.
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