Girlfriend's mums funeral 23/12, my sister parked our car near the church. Spent several minutes trying to pay via phone. She says "Each time it appeared that the phone call was answered, but the line was silent. I tried to press buttons to get options to come up but it was only silence." She gave up so as not to be late. No app or other payment options on the sign. PCN placed on car about 5 mins later when we were in church. Other attendees said they had similar problem with no response on the line.
She appealed this explaining the above including screenshots of the calls to the number, and got a generic response “Although you tried to pay for parking by phone or online, your payment did not go through. This can happen when drivers make a mistake or when their card is not accepted. It is unfortunate if this happened with you, but drivers can only park if the transaction is successful.”
She then sent a written submission. It seems this was received by the council as on the PCN history online, they have reopened the challenge on 5/2, but then on 27/2 they send a Notice to Owner. Addressed to my partner as it's her name on the V5C. Hadn't bothered her with the story so far so obviously this was stressful for her on opening the letter.
Anyway, I intend to make another written submission now. I'm not sure what mandatory grounds the phone line failure might fall under. I will state funeral attendance as mitigating circumstance. Can I use the fact they did not respond to the second appeal??
Thank you for any help
PCN history from council website:
27/02/2026 06:56:51 Notice to Owner Issued
26/02/2026 14:45:50 Correspondence Letter
26/02/2026 14:43:55 Off Hold why haven't they written rejected or responded here?
05/02/2026 17:05:02 On Hold :Challenge Received (06/04/2026 ) this seems to be when they received the written submission
23/01/2026 10:11:22 Correspondence Letter
23/01/2026 10:06:16 Offer £80.00 until 10/02/2026
23/01/2026 10:06:12 Off Hold
23/01/2026 10:06:10 Challenge/Representation Rejected
23/12/2025 20:00:59 On Hold: Challenge Received (21/02/2026)
