Free Traffic Legal Advice

I'd use the ground "The penalty charge exceeded the amount applicable in the circumstances of the case". You can use more than one ground however I'm not sure where the "procedural impropriety" occurs.

Please conrirm the status of the PCN for which you received a Charge Certificate? Have you received an Order for Recovery for it and did you submit a Witness Statement to the Traffic Enforcement Centre? Or are you still waiting for the OfR?

And lay out what exactly happened and how your car ended up where it did on each occasion and X-ref both PCNs. Emphasise the mains gas leak and the Council order to evacuate. I understand the first PCN but I'm not sure about the second, so make the circumstances clear. Type it up and upload it as an attachment so you don't lose any formatting. Request a personal hearing.

It's always best to get your appeals to the adjudicator registered in a timely manner so you don't accicdently lose by default. If you need to then put "detailed submission to follow" as your appeal, but make sure you get it done. Personally I suggest it's best to at least get a skeleton case submitted to the Tribunl and update it later if needs be.

If you have only one appeal to register right now then mention that you will be seeking to add an appeal for the second PCN in due course and you want the two cases combined. Just in case there is a long delay.

Also please post up a draft of your skeleton on here for scrutiny and crediblilty check.

Quote from: mosana on August 24, 2024, 01:00:39 pm

Thanks, it is time for me to appeal! I have two questions.

I'm not sure that's correct, I can only see an informal rejection in reply 8 above? In which case you need to wait for the notice to owner.

As for the charge certificate one, if you can get the council to tell you the date that the notice of rejection was issued (or even better send you a copy), then we can go straight to the tribunal without having to wait for the Order for Recovery (the guide I wrote doesn't go into this because while it is a more convenient route, it doesn't work in all cases and isn't suitable for a DIY approach, but if it works it will save loads of time and hassle).

@cp8759

The OP has received an NTO for PCN CR46209082 dated 23/07/2024 in respect of an alleged contravention on the 23/03/2024. The OP submitted formal representations and the Council has responded with an NoR dated 01/08/2024 which includes the verification code required to submit an online appeal to the London Tribunals.

Hence the OP now needs to get his appeal to the independent adjudicator at the London Tribunals registered, at an absolute minimum.

There is a second PCN. The OP needs to clarify the status of this. Last he confirmed he had a Charge Certificate and had not received any NoR.

Also please post up a draft of your skeleton on here for scrutiny and crediblilty check.

Here goes the draft...

I would like to appeal the PCN CR46209082 through the arguments in my formal representation. I would like to combine the appeal with the appeal against PCN CR46274186 and also would like to request a personal hearing. Both PCN's were levied after I was evacuated from my house by the council on Mar 22, 2024 and not allowed back till the afternoon of March 23, 2024.

Details: 
On March 22, 2024, we were asked to evacuate our house at short notice because of a gas leak in the area. Being an emergency, we were not given details about the duration of the evacuation.

After a few hours, we were told by a Met Police staff that we will be unable to spend the night at our home. We were given the address of a church to stay overnight. The police were not able to give advice on where to park our cars. We have 2 kids of 4 and 1 year old at home, so we had to use our car to transport the family, after taking basic food and milk supplies for the kid and the baby.

The car park at the church was occupied, and so I had parked the car overnight on Altyre road, and had planned to move it during the morning upon further instructions from the council and the gas agency. I kept calling the council through the morning about the next course of action for the residents, but they were not able to provide me with any updates. I had also been ticketed during this time. PCN CR46209082 was issued in the morning (08:34) while I was still awaiting instructions from the council to no avail.

As per the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, in the event of an emergency, it is imperative for the local council to:

Put in place arrangements to make information available to the public about civil
protection matters and maintain arrangements to warn, inform and advise the public
in the event of an emergency;

Food provisioning was not taken care of by the council. The council also failed to provide information about the expected timelines and make contingency arrangements (including food provisions) for families with kids. Had there been clear instructions on parking arrangements after the evacuation, we would have followed those instructions.

We made many calls to the council for updates, but they did not have much information about the status on the ground. They redirected us to the gas agency, SGN.

While the gas agency messaged us on Saturday at 10:56 AM, that we were allowed back into our homes, it did not tell us that the road access to our home was blocked and our car won’t be able to come in. We arrived on Lansdowne Road (which is one-way) but found the access to our home was blocked. There were no diversion signs, or information about where residents of Emerald House have to go.

I parked the car safely at the nearby Walpole Road, and went to inquire the staff and the police in the area about the diversion and instructions for residents of Emerald House. It was during this time that my car had been ticketed.

Had there been clear instructions on the diversion, or had we been told about the blockade in advance, we would have acted accordingly. I also had placed a clearly signposted message on the car, saying that there has been an emergency evacuation at our house. Besides, the ticketing officer has indicated an observation time from 11:30 to 11:30. I did not receive sufficient time for getting the information about the road block, or spotting the officer and explaining the situation to them.

We kindly request the adjudicator to cancel our PCN considering the council has not given us any directions during the evacuation on parking and blocked the way to our home without any information on return. 

Would love to get feedback on the draft above, as today is the submission deadline 

I have received a mail from the council saying the notice to owner for CR46274186 was indeed sent to me on Jul 3. However I dont have it with me! Attaching it here.

Should I just wait for the Order of recovery now? Is there any chance that my challenge against the order of recovery will be rejected?

@mosana for PCN CR46274186 as long as you don't miss any deadlines the witness statement you will file against the Order for Recovery cannot be rejected, the court has no discretion. Please read the guide here and just follow the instructions: https://www.ftla.uk/announcements/charge-certificate-cases-under-the-traffic-management-act-2004-no-original-pcn/

As for PCN CR46209082 you need to request a hearing, do not ask for a decision in your absence. If you'd like me to represent you my offer still stands.

I tried to mail TEC on my order of recovery for the PCN CR46274186, but I get this error message:

Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:

tec@justice.gov.uk
The recipient's mailbox is full and can't accept messages now. Please try resending your message later, or contact the recipient directly.

Anyone else facing the same issue?

OP, thinking ahead to your appeal(s), I suggest you rethink your argument.

It is not within the council's power to order you to evacuate, this lies with the emergency services. In the early stages of an emergency, even one which is very limited and localised as in your case, the council's role is supportive during the emergency phase becoming more executive during the recovery phase. IMO you will get nowhere by misquoting the CCA or criticising the council in the way you have: IMO the adjudicator won't be interested, you take these matters up(and should have taken them up) separately. For example, have you complained to the council about the support it provided e.g. shelter, information, food etc? After all, these aren't matters contingent upon whether reps against PCNs are successful or not.

As regards the Altyre Rd PCN, I suggest you look at the circumstances again. For example, did you park when there weren't any parking restrictions? If so, no problem at that time. The issue arose the following morning. Which church hall and where relative to Altyre? 

Perhaps..you knew that parking restrictions came into effect at 8am but the situation in the church hall, where you were being accommodated by the council, was such that you did not know when or if you might have to vacate the hall and in all honesty after such a turbulent night and early morning it was not practicable to move your car before 8.34 am. when the PCN was issued....