Parking Ticket

[baby_lexus]

I was in Camden on saturday night with the Mrs and both kids for a friends wedding.

Pulled up near the hotel into a side street which clearly had a notice saying free parking after 6.30pm. Checked the ticket machine which also said the same thing. By the time we got both kids out, the pram and bags etc I walked back to the machine. It had hit 6.30pm and clearly said "Free parking till 20th Nove 06 : 830am"

So I didn't bother putting a ticket on, no point.... it's hit 6.30pm.

Anyway... came back to the car around mid night... and guess what.... a ticket on the screen :tsktsk:

The traffic warden timed it at 6.29pm. But the reciept at the bottom shows the time to be 6.30pm ?

So, what do I do... I don't fancy paying £50... or £100 after 28 days. I went by the time on the ticket machine...surely the traffic wardens hand held had the wrong time ?

Do I have any come back ? If so, what do I say in the letter I propose to write ?

Advice much appreciated.

[Steve ( West Mids )]

Probably waiting in the shadows for you, and maybe rebooted the hand held and changed the clock :(

[GWilso]

A Caption from my local rag this week may give you some idea

FIVE parking attendants have been fired for the way in which they dished out 37 fines to motorists in High Wycombe.

The five were dismissed for gross misconduct last week after an investigation by National Car Parks (NCP).

They had been suspended on full pay before being summoned to disciplinary hearings at the Parking Shop in High Wycombe's High Street.

It is understood that they were accused of having "falsified company records in relation to vehicle observation times".

continued...

The workers had to leave without being given any notice payment as a result of being sacked for gross misconduct.

They will now have the right to appeal against the decision.

The dismissals were as a result of what happened between August 3 and October 17 2006 when the attendants' hand-held computers were hit by a fault. This meant normal procedures could be over-ridden.

NCP says the staff failed to give drivers the standard few minutes' grace period and instead immediately handed out the penalties to cars parked illegally in High Wycombe town centre. One car was even slapped with a ticket even though it was legally parked.

Now members of Bucks County Council (BCC), which is in charge of highways, have been left embarrassed and angry after the blunders.

All 37 penalties have been cancelled and BCC, which contracts out the attendants from NCP, is refunding everyone who was given a false ticket.

“I was horrified it had happened because I’m anxious that the special parking area works well "

Valerie Letheren, Bucks County Council cabinet member

The attendants were able to dole out these tickets because of the fault with the computers.

The devices do not usually allow them to print a ticket before they have carried out an observation period.

The time varies depending on where the car is parked. In a disabled bay, there is no time allowance; it is three minutes for a yellow line and for pay and display bays; and it is five minutes in residents' bays.

In service yards, lorries are given ten minutes.

The software fault, however, let attendants by-pass the observation period and issue tickets the moment they saw illegally parked cars.

The council only learned of the problems two weeks ago.

Valerie Letheren, cabinet member for transportation at BCC, said: "It's not good news and I'm not very pleased about it.

"I was horrified it had happened because I'm anxious that the special parking area works well and it works fairly and that's in my interest - it's in the interest of all of us."

She added that because of the sackings, more attendants would be drafted in to help and the computers would be modified so this could not happen again.

[Monster-Mat]

i would seriously fight it

[maneesh]

fight it. ur in the right!

[baby_lexus]

Thanks guys. Should I quote the incident mentioned by GWilso ?

[Keith Bowler]

I would certainly question it - Camden has plenty of 'history' with over zealous parking wardens.

[Monster-Mat]

no need, the fact the ticket was issued at the time it was stated by the machines clock, means it was issued in a time when it shouldnt have been

[GWilso]

"grace period" being the key words however mentioning this article they might just think your jumping on the band wagon

good luck

Thanks guys. Should I quote the incident mentioned by GWilso ?

[Parthiban]

Yeah definitely fight it. I live in the borough of camden and the traffic wardens round there are the worst I've ever come across. I've had several tickets and also a clamping and got out of all of them (as I've never actually been at fault)

I've never tried it but I think that when the machines say "free parking until ....." the machine will not actually issue you a ticket if you put your money in it. I'd recommend testing this first, but if it is actually true, then use that as your main defense.

As someone who has got out of a lot in Camden, I wouldn't recommend quoting anything about dodgy parking attendants or anything like that, don't play out as though you've been victimised. Instead, simply be very apologetic, explain your case that it was past 6.30, and that the machine said parking was free from now onwards. Also make out that you're quite upset by it and that you would never have parked illegally intentionally and that there must have been some discrepancy between the times on the ticket machine and the attendants unit.

If you do find the machines won't issue tickets outside hours, then you could also play it out a bit by saying that you put your money in, and it wouldn't give you a ticket and that's when you realised that it was outside operational hours so I couldn't have been parked illegally.

Hope it works out for you, but I've found the simple apologetic route works everytime, let me know if you need any further help with it :)

[Northern Boys Luv Gravy]

Appeal against it, some of these wardens are a right shower of s*ite.

Occasionally you do get some satisfaction though. A colleague and I returned to our car to find it clamped at a service station on the A19. A quick phone call to work brought a wagon out equipped with oxyacetelene cutting gear and we had it burned off and chucked on the verge in no time. Wish I could have seen the clampers' faces when they returned.

[Scarlet Pimpernell]

no need, the fact the ticket was issued at the time it was stated by the machines clock, means it was issued in a time when it shouldnt have been

That really is the bottom line...the machine allowed a ticket to be printed when it clearly should not have been...

And just like speedo accuracy is built into speed camera's, surely a few minutes (2-3) should be built into the machines too - let's face how accurate are people watches, and more importantly how accurate is the machine's clock?

I bet they were on commission, or waiting in the shadows.

Fight it mate - I cannot see how they would justify it. Threaten them with the media, and use the article above. It's your right buddy!! PS - you might want to start as Prthiban says, calmly, and then build to a crescendo...

[baby_lexus]

Just rang the number.... and guess what ? It's a damn answering machine. Gives a fax number that you can send your complaint to. So I'll draft something polite and see what happens.

[baby_lexus]

Faxed a firmly but politely worded letter over to them.

Does anyone know if they have to respond to it by an agreed time ? Only reason I ask is because you have 14 days to pay £50, or it ends up double afterwards.

[PQuist]

Fight it. Send a letter to their offices within 14 days explaining the circumstance. Send it by recorded delivery post, e-mail and always keep a record. We will all back you. I parked in London Waterloo once with two minutes left for free parking to commence. Parking attendant saw me sitting in the car waiting and said it was ok to leave the car as he had finished his duty and will not issue a ticket for the 2 min left. As I walked away from the car and turned round, the bast**d was issuing the ticket.

I refused to pay the fine and made a complaint to the council. Ticket was scrapped.

[GWilso]

I currenlty work for the council (not parking services lol) if you put in an appeal wich you have done as i understand the 14day period bit is put on hold untill the argument is resolved may be diffrent for each council though it should tell you everything on the back of the ticket

let us know how you get on

Faxed a firmly but politely worded letter over to them.

Does anyone know if they have to respond to it by an agreed time ? Only reason I ask is because you have 14 days to pay £50, or it ends up double afterwards.

[LHR27R]

I had to deal with Camden and their parking tickets several times.

On one occasion, I was dropping off some very heavy boxes outside my apartment block and the car was on double yellow lines. Having spotted a parking warden I politely explained to him that it will take two minutes to unload and I will be moving the car. He was surprisingly friendly and said "no problem" and walked off.

About four weeks later I got a letter from Camden Council asking why I haven't paid my £100 fine!! So the warden obviously said I could unload there, took the details down, issued the ticket and threw it away. There was never a ticket on my windscreen as I was with the car all the time...

After a quick search on the internet I found www.appealnow.com. You basically pay around £10 for a yearly membership and let them do the "appeal" for you. All I did was fill in a few details plus add some comments... I never wrote directly to the council.

A week later, Camden wrote back and asked for a few more details regarding the ticket and I replied. Ticket was cancelled after another week.

I managed to get out of two other tickets (different councils) using the same website.

[Parthiban]

The important thing about camden is that they work a numbers game - they simply issue as many tickets as they can get away with and hope that no one appeals. As most people don't they make a lot off it, and as they already know there are lots of dodgy tickets being issued, most of the ones that are appealed are cancelled as its not worth them fighting it.

The funniest thing is that if you leave your car on a yellow line, traffic wardens will never go near it even if its illegally parked. However, park in a designated parking bay, and they will patrol it over and over to make sure they catch it the second its time runs out!

I once had my car parked on a yellow line (in full view of course) for 15 minutes, three traffic wardens walked past it, but not even a single one touched it. I assume its something to do with their commission but its totally bizarre if you've ever seen it

[marsden1002]

http://forums.pepipoo.com/

Goto there and post your full story. They help with speeding and parking fines, and know all the current in's and outs to the law.

It even helped me escpase 3 points & £60 fine!

[Mr Pants!]

Another thing you should consider, from a different angle, if you were done on Double or Single yellow lines, the lines must be complete to be enforceable, that also includes going over drain covers (each grill must be painted). Also, they must have a bar at each end. If any of the paint or bar is missing, the line(s) are not enforceable.

Get a picture of the lines and if there are any breaks, you are free! :)

Trust me on this I have this information on good authority

[puresilk]

Hi

write a letter to the parking authority the address hsould be on the back and despite it!

Once they know the facts they may wave it or give u a reduced fine!

i had a problem simular when i started work at 0700 hrs I would get to the car park at 0630 Hrs and the machine would not let me buy an all day ticket cos it only issues them after 0700 hrs.

So i got a fine once and I desputed it big time and they waved it for me!

I was surprised thinking that they would not!

[baby_lexus]

Thanks for everyones replies.

It's been 2 weeks and I haven't had a reply at all. Should I call and leave a message on the answerphone or just ignore it ?

Surely they should be duty bound to respond in writting ?

[GWilso]

2 weeks they should have done by now i would try contacting them just incase your letter was lost in post or something because if your appeal fails which it should'nt from what ive read the next letter will be a nasty balliff one or something

Thanks for everyones replies.

It's been 2 weeks and I haven't had a reply at all. Should I call and leave a message on the answerphone or just ignore it ?

Surely they should be duty bound to respond in writting ?

[baby_lexus]

I faxed it... and also sent a recorded delivered letter to the address. I have the Post Office receipt to prove this, also the fax receipt to prove it. But I don't want to explain that to a baliff !

[lexus boy]

You'll probably be able to fight it online.

Its easy I have to do it nearly every week.

In my case they have no right to, so its instantly revoked, most are actually. Ive yet to have a reply either