Free Traffic Legal Advice

There is a yellow line on the road outside my house with parking restrictions.
On December 14th, I returned home from shopping and took some bags into the house.
I went back outside to move the car, literally 3 minutes later and a warden had already put a ticket on my windscreen.
He was walking and could have even seen me get out of the car with my shopping because he had walked 60 yards to my car.
The ticket said the car was seen at 12.38 and was issued at 12.38.
I appealed against this PCN the next day as I believe he should have waited at least a few minutes before issuing a ticket.
I heard nothing until last week, March 14, nearly 3 months later, I received a letter of rejection.
I no longer have the ticket as I thought there was a time limit for them to reply to my appeal.
They have told me if I want to make a formal appeal I will have to wait for a Notice to Owner (NtO).

Are they allowed to issue a ticket without waiting even a minute?

I thought there was a time limit for them to reply to my appeal.

There is a limit but not at the PCN informal representations stage, which is where you were when submitting representations.

There is an exemption for loading-unloading, so if it were me, I'd wait for the Notice to Owner and submit reps on this basis.

I no longer have the PCN. I threw it away after I had no response after 2 months as I thought that there was a time limit of 56 days for them to reply.
I have appealed against PCN's from the council before and have only ever had a reply if the appeal has been rejected (within a few weeks), but they don't reply if it is not rejected.
I am going to wait for them to send the NTO and I will make a formal appeal.
The rejection letter stated that "you said you only stopped for a short time, but this is not allowed".
They ignored my main point that the time of contravention and the time of issue was exactly the same.
 

I have attached the front and back page of their rejection letter to my informal appeal.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

only the name and address and the penalty chaarge number and location. There is no traffic code.

@John001 also please give us a link to the exact spot on google street view, I want to get hold of the traffic order (if I don't have a copy already) but that's a bit difficult if I don't know where this is. It takes 20 working days to get hold of it so the sooner I can request it the better.

From reading other threads, it seems that the only way of getting a n appeal accepted is by pointing out a technical error - is this true?

No, it's not true.
You've described a legitimate exemption and ultimately your word in front of an adjudicator should, ime. win. As long as you don't say anything daft.
What the council have told you so far is rubbish; there are various circumstances in which you are allowed to stop.
If they repeat that statement at the next stage then you will also have a 'failure to consider', a winning point on its own.

But we do need you to cooperate. Do read the link I gave you on how to post images; your current attachments are difficult to read and lack the elements I've explained we need.

Traffic order is on its way.