Free Traffic Legal Advice

Two days ago on Saturday at 18:33 I received a Penalty Charge Notice from City of Westminster. I was delivering donated food from friends and family to the women's hostel. I saw the Controlled Zone sign saying Monday-Friday 8:30am-6:30pm so I became relaxed about parking my car there. But I didn't realise there was another sign about Parking Permit Monday-Saturday 8:30am-10pm.

Should I just pay up or do I have any grounds to appeal? I honestly just saw the Controlled Zone sign and assumed parking restrictions don't apply on a Saturday.

The amount is £80 if I pay up quickly or else double.

I would appreciate any advice. Thank you.

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Thank you for your reply.

I was parked for about half an hour. Like I said once I saw Monday-Friday, I was a bit more relaxed about delivering rather than rushing to unload the car as soon as possible. I got the ticket while I was signing the donation form at the shelter. Again if I thought I was parked illegally I could have made the shelter rush this instead of waiting my turn to see the receptionist. If required I can certainly get proof from the shelter that I was making food donation.

So given this information should I appeal or just pay up?

Really appreciate this.

About ten families, every six weeks, cook and make food packages for the women's shelter (https://www.maryleboneproject.org.uk/). Each family makes about 40 packages of food to be distributed one per person at the shelter. So this results in about 15 or  bags full of food containers. This week I also had a couple of bags of clothing.

I am 63 years old and can only carry two bags at a time. So I guess about eight trips between the car and hostel.

Thanks you. These are pretty much the facts. I'll fill in the blanks. I'll let you know how it goes.

This is my draft. Just to be clear once we had finished delivering my wife signed the donation form. The charity will be sending a copy of the donation form.


"As the authority knows, there is a Marylebone Project located in 1-5 Cosway Street which houses a women’s hostel. To supplement the hostel's work, some families from north London prepare approximately 400 food packages every six weeks. Given that my driving skills exceed those of my cooking, I'm designated to deliver these loads which I do regularly, almost invariably on a Saturday. Until the day in question, I have parked on a yellow line without issue. On the day of the PCN I was actually the food packages plus a few bags of clothes donated by the women from north London but could not find a convenient space other than in the parking place which I mistakenly thought was subject to the same restrictions as the yellow lines.

I now know differently.

I probably made ten trips to/from the hostel and presumably it was during one of these that the CEO issued the PCN. It has been mentioned to me that delivering might actually be allowed in these spaces but I wouldn't know. If it is, I have attached evidence of my activity (donation form signed by my wife xxxx xxxx) and hope this is sufficient for you to cancel the PCN. Alternatively, if delivering is not allowed I would still ask you to exercise discretion."

Since I assumed my car was parked correctly we took our time and talked to the residents of the hostel so we did not complete in 20 minutes. So perhaps this argument may not be valid.

Thank you. But should I add to my statement that I posted today at 6:49?