Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi
My wife is disabled and we parked in a dedicated disabled bay in Barking on 26/04/2024. We displayed my wife's valid Blue Badge but the timer fell onto the floor, I'm presuming when the door closed, and so we were issued a PCN for "Parking in a designated disabled person's parking place without displaying a valid disabled person's badge in the prescribed manner". However, when we returned to the the car there was no PCN on it so the first we knew that a PCN had been issued was when we received a letter (Notice to Owner) from Barking and Dagenham council advising that we had a PCN and that we now owed £130.
If we had received the PCN I would have paid it sooner at the reduced rate but at this point we decided to appeal.

We appealed via their online portal, submitting copies of my wife's Blue Badge and advising that a PCN was not attached to the car but didn't receive a letter or any notification advising the verdict of the appeal's decision. We then received another letter (Charge Certificate) advising the fine was now set to £195.

I spoke to someone at Barking Council in their parking dept advising that we didn't receive any notification from our appeal. She has advised that the only thing we can do is to challenge this PCN in court. We've now received an Outstanding Payment Reminder and advised that the PCN has been registered as a debt in Northampton County Court. 
I've never had a PCN from Barking and Dagenham Council, neither have I had to go to court to challenge a PCN so I'm not really sure of the process from this point.
Can anyone give me some advice about what I should do or what the likely outcome is at this point?
Honestly, I would have paid it at £70 but the way they've dealt with us has been really shoddy.. I don't want this costing me any more because I'm completely green in this area.

 Here's the 3 letters we've received so far - the last pic is the latest correspondence:

https://imgur.com/a/JfpMP9p

This is typical threat letter that assumes you have no grounds to get the process reset and is especially bad given you spoke to the council. Did they say they'd sent a rejection? 

The important thing is to keep track of the order for recovery and we recommend calling the Traffic Enforcement Centre in due course to check if indeed the debt has been registered as you.

When I attempt to view the evidence on the B&D website I get "The Penalty Charge Notice could not be found. Please check that you have not mistyped." And it doesn't seem to have anything to do with confusing 0 and O from the VRM.

Did you pay the PCN?

Is there anything wrong with the VRM quoted on the Notice to Owner or the Charge Cert?

Also are the NtO and the CC addressed to you as Registered Keeper? Or is it to your wife as RK?
And who submitted the representation, you or was it your wife?

The PCN is online. The OP says they used the portal so the rep should be OK.

OP, you're new to this and need reassurance.

Here it is.

Your situation is standard fare. We get these regularly.

Pl try not to get overwhelmed by the jargon, this process is full of it and acronyms. It's routine to us but not to you.


As you did not receive the authority's response, known as a Notice of Rejection of Representations then you may challenge this procedurally. Sadly this is where you'll get hammered by acronyms as in:
Order for Recovery(OfR);
Witness Statement(WS);
Traffic Enforcement Centre(TEC);
....to add to:

Notice to Owner(NTO);
Charge Certificate(CC);

The authority's next mandated step- as opposed to the bullsh*t letter they just sent- is to register their alleged debt with TEC and then notify you of this by sending you an OfR accompanying which will be a WS which you complete by simply ticking a box, signing and returning to TEC, NOT the council.

At this stage the council is no longer a judge in its own cause and if you follow procedure TEC will cancel the OfR and CC. The council must then follow procedure which requires that they refer the matter to an adjudicator at the penalty of £130.

Simple!

In short:
Don't worry;
Keep you eye on your mail and the council's website;
Come back here when you receive the OfR or you see that the alleged debt has increased by £10 to £205.

Hello again. I received an Order for Recovery and a Witness Statement. I just wanted to confirm something though before I respond. I am down as the respondent but it was my wife that was driving, has the Blue Badge registered in her name and the one who lodged the initial appeal against the PCN on the LBBD website. However, on the Order for Recovery it states that the the application must be completed by the respondent. So is that me (who the letter is addressed to) or my wife?

OK got it. Many thanks