Free Traffic Legal Advice

Yes I will go ahead and make an appeal to the independent adjudicator. Would you like me to submit a draft to this forum before submitting? If so, should the appeal be similar to the representation I made to the council but with an emphasis on the lack of date and time of the event on the signage? For example still including this detail as well, "No PCN served to the vehicle.
No PCN was found on the vehicle therefore I require that if you decline these representations that you provide full proof that a PCN was served to the vehicle.  This is the second time a notice to owner has arrived for a PCN at the same location, when no PCN was found on the vehicle." Thanks for your help.

Right I will aim to get an appeal drafted by tomorrow and post this to this forum. You raise an interesting point as London councils now record when event zone signs are updated, Glasgow should have done the same at least that way they can prove that they are abiding by the law in regards to the signage. I will pursue evidence of this from the council on the appeal to the adjudicator.

Hello sorry for the delay in reply,
This is what I have drafted so far to the adjudicator, please let me know about any corrections that could be made, thanks.
I deny liability for the above PCN penalty on the basis that the contravention did not occur for the following reasons:
I have received a PCN while parked in a "no waiting or loading" restriction on the 28th of June 2024 at 17:07 on  Carmunnock road. The date and times of the next event was not provided on the sign for the single yellow line concerned. I therefore require full proof of when the event days and timings of the restrictions were added to the signage.  When I had parked, I did not see any details on the sign of these restrictions.  These events are known many months in advance so the signage should be updated in a similar time scale.  Many councils in London with similar event zones record when the signs are updated, however when I made representations against Glasgow city council for this, they said the signage was updated "prior to the event". There is no indication if the event signage was updated the day of, the day before or at a minimum a few days before the event. When asked about exactly when the signage was updated, the council have failed to provide adequate information(date and time) regarding this. Outside the hours when an event is taking place, parking is totally unrestricted, so a person could park for several days, therefore as soon as a future event date is decided, the council have a duty to post the date on the sign, so that people can work out, when parking, how long they can park for. Again it is important to note that these events are known for quite some time but the signage is not being updated with sufficient notice. Glasgow City Council are under a legal and, indeed, moral obligation to give prior notice of the event days restriction; but have failed to do this. The council cannot rely on any information about the event online it must be on the sign as is required by law.

I also want to complain that on both occasions when I received a Notice to Owner, without finding the PCN on the vehicle( possibly due to removal by an individual), and submitted a representation, the council demanded payment of the full penalty, and did not give the option to pay the discounted amount even though the circumstances were clearly explained in my representations. I find this wholly unfair as I was not aware of the PCN being served till receiving a notice to owner a month later making me pay the full amount without giving me the option to pay the discounted amount within 14 days.

In view of the above points, I demand that the PCN be cancelled forthwith, and that Glasgow City Council cease enforcement until they have investigated why event day information is not being provided on the sign with sufficient notice, and have corrected their process for its provision.

Can we get back to signs pl.

IMO, the location sits within a CPZ (Permit Zone) which does NOT prohibit loading at all.(other years' GSV show that the lower panel is blank).

You are alleged to have breached a no loading restriction.

This MUST be indicated at the location using prescribed markings.

Controlled Parking Zone

a)
an area—

(i)
in which every part of every road is subject to a prohibition indicated by single or double yellow lines or single or double yellow kerb markings

It isn't.

Unless the council can show that its signs are authorised by the appropriate authority then IMO the prohibition has not been signed as required and the restriction cannot be enforced.

There might be a waiting restriction but not a marked loading restriction.

IMO

If the street lies within a CPZ, then there must be entry signs. Can you post a GSV link to one.  If you tootle down the street you see entry signs on the side streets for the Hampden Events Permit Zone, but I went a fair way down this Carmunnock Road and didn't find one.

Hello thanks for your input. I know that you and Incandescent are both far more knowledgeable on me in this subject. So the question is if I am to refer this to independent adjudicator what should be my main reasoning for cancelling the PCN. Is it the lack of notice on the signage or the no loading blips or both? And how may I draft this in writing to the adjudicator? Thanks to you both.

I'm concerned with this approach.

If the entry signs do not prohibit loading then it makes no difference at all whether event dates were displayed or not.

OP, we must see recent photos of the signs.

What we know from the council's evidence is that there weren't ANY loading blips. Therefore for the contravention to be proved the location must be within a controlled parking zone which prohibits loading.

Unless this is in evidence then there is NO evidence of this restriction and a contravention could not have occurred.

Photos of the signs which you passed to get to the location. Photos pl, unless GSV is recent.

The parking location is, from a GSV tootle along Carmunnock Road, not in the Event Zone, but the side roads off it are, and the entry signs can be clearly seen, together with the event dates and times.  There is a yellow line, and restriction signs (two), for this, that show both Waiting and Loading are only restricted during the event dates and times shown on the lower part of the sign. Directly on the opposite side of the street is a similar yellow line and sign.

Clearly is it paramount that the event dates and times are announced well in advance, because other than event days, there are no other restrictions for these yellow lines, so people can park for many days, even weeks, so the dates must be in position as soon as event dates are decided. So it is surely not unreasonable for the council to take down the dates and times once an event is over, and replace them with the next event dates and times.

What is a puzzle for me, is that this restriction is there at all, because parking is in bays, and the road remains quite wide enough for traffic to pass easily in both directions.

The sign restricts both waiting (aka parking), and loading, during events. The 'No Waiting' symbol is alongside the text 'No Loading'.