Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi all,

1. Recently moved and registered for a residents parking permit which was approved last month.

2. Received permit letter in post (below), letter only had a few lines with no instructions re. displaying permit. (Now displaying permit to avoid further PCN fun )



3. Since moving in & parking in resident only bays I have seen CEOs check my car reg on multiple occasions using a handheld device and go about their day -- so assumed displaying physical permit was not necessary as permit (virtual?) was clearly being looked up/validated by CEO.

4. Issued two PCNs, 18th July and 19th July. Appealed both on same grounds and had earlier one cancelled, latter appeal was rejected.

- 18th July PCN




- 19th July PCN




- PCN challenge appeal

I very much regret not posting here prior to submitting this, submitted the same for both PCNs.



- Appeal decision letters

18th July



19th July




Additional information:

- Car mugshot pics:









- Online parking permit terms found on the councils website do mention displaying a permit (highlighted)



- PCN text states "PARKED IN A RESIDENTS' OR SHARED USE PARKING PLACE OR ZONE WITHOUT A VALID VIRTUAL PERMIT OR CLEARLY DISPLAYING A VALID PHYSICAL PERMIT OR VOUCHER OR PAY AND DISPLAY TICKET ISSUED FOR THAT PLACE WHERE REQUIRED, OR WITHOUT PAYMENT OF THE PARKING CHARGE"

Does a residents permit qualify as a valid virtual permit?

- Spoke with parking control on the phone who said instructions for 'newer' residents permits were online and no longer included in the letter. Likely not useful but here is the letter provided with visitor permits which has clear instructions



Wondering if I should cough up and pay off the outstanding ticket. Any guidance is greatly appreciated.

Edit: Including PCN/VRM as per forum guidance

Many thanks for the reply @Incandescent

What puzzles me, however, is that one PCN was cancelled, and one not. When you submitted representations, did you not link the two PCNs as both were related to your misunderstanding of the council scheme.
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I stupidly copied and pasted the same appeal text for both without mentioning that two had been issued. One would hope that the person responsible would take this into consideration for both PCN appeals

I think I would be tempted to wait for the NtO and submit a formal representation, but this time mentioning that actually two PCNs had been issued because of your misunderstanding of the scheme, and it therefore seems unfair that one PCN was cancelled, and the other one not.  They will probably refuse and re-offer the discount, but at least you will have tried. I don't think I would take the matter to London Tribunals unless the discount is not re-offered, because your case is not all that strong, and adjudicators can only decide on law, not mitigation.

If I can evidence my claim of CEOs arbitrarily applying the law relating to enforcement action through the use of subject access requests (or similar) would it be worthwhile taking it to the tribunals? Ideally I'd like to get the CEO's handheld device lookup record for my VRM, there should be multiple date/time entries as I hadn't been displaying the physical permit until a few days ago.


After some Google searching I found two documents:

1. 'Harrow Parking Management and Enforcement Strategy 2019' which has a section on virtual permits:



2. Subject: Parking Review – Introduction of Virtual Parking Permits



Can the above two documents be considered as confirmation that Harrow Council do indeed have virtual permits for resident parking? If so, could I potentially refute the claim of not having valid virtual permit as per the PCN text?

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

SAR submitted today requesting VRM lookups, unlikely they turn it around before I receive my NtO.

Regarding making formal representation, should I provide a basic argument at this stage with a view to 'expand' once escalated to the tribunals?

They have up to 6 months to serve an NtO, but anything over 3 months is getting into unfairness territory. Here is the relevant clause in the Statutory Guidance 2022

The NtO may be issued 28 days after serving the penalty charge, and we expect authorities to send them within 56 days. The ultimate time limit, in exceptional circumstances, is 6 months from the ‘relevant date’. There should be a very good reason for waiting that long to serve an NtO. The regulations set out the information that the NtO must  give.

Best to submit your reps on-line. It costs nothing and you get an immediate response of their receipt.

You have to be careful, because if you ambush the council at an adjudication, the adjudicator will not look kindly on it.

For some strange reason you've blanked all the dates on the permit letter.

Strictly speaking it's not a continuous contravention but they say there are no grounds to cancel when they did find grounds for the first one.

I would write a polite representation about your misunderstanding, noting the cancellation of the first and of course that you had a valid permit.

Harrow is a bit behind the times but I must say I'm surprised you didn't think a paper permit wasn't sent for fun...

Didn't respond to your reply earlier. Thanks for the advice, here's what I wrote (1000 char limit didn't help):





Also attached the accompanying permit letter sent to another resident (posted earlier in this thread) along with the one I was sent.

And in return I received this from the council:









Haven't yet heard back from my subject access request from the council where I was hoping to prove that CEOs were looking up my permit digitally and not issuing PCNs.. Not sure if there's any point in chasing if others think my case is not worth taking forward - any thoughts?

Outcome.