Free Traffic Legal Advice

1. Islington - 12 Parked in residents bay without valid permit or P&D - Eden Grove (Zone N)

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Eden+Grove,+London/@51.5513951,-0.1126253,18.5z

I park outside my child's nursery every day for 2-5 minutes whilst dropping them off. The bay directly outside the nursery is a P&D bay enforced 8.30am to 6.30pm. Minimum park via Ringgo is 6 minutes £1.23 for my vehicle (electric van) but I don't bother as it's too much hassle for a quick drop off. Eden Grove is constantly swarmed with CEO's at this time of day as there are building works at the top of the street and it's easy tickets for them for all the trades trying to go about their business. I do this every day and all has been OK. Typcially if there's a warden around I'll have a word and tell them I'm dropping off and all is OK with that arrangement. On this particular occasion I had a settle my child in a bit and took longer than 5 minuntes. I received a PCN.



I appealed explaining the circumstances and received the following response:



My response was:

I have received your response to my appeal and subsequent NTO. I understand your argument that motorists escorting children to school should use short stay parking if possible. You might think that this is a fair argument but if I said that usually dropping a child off takes 2-3 minutes and your minimum stay for 61918 is 6 minutes then short stay doesn't seem practical given the activity can be completed within a couple of minutes AND shorter than the usual required observation time. The economics of the situation is secondary to the practical aspects described above. It is only because of the vigilance of your CEOs that I have been able to undertake this dropping off as they can see that I am dropping off a child and won't be long. On this particular occasion my child was upset and required some settling in before I could leave her hence I was longer than usual. This street is heavily patrolled due to the construction works at the top of Eden Grove and I can understand that CEOs are keen to penalise tradespeople who appear to be parking for free. However, under these circumstances I would request that leniency is given due to the circumstances. Your CEOs would have allowed this had they seen I was dropping off. If proof of dropping a child at nursery is a possible mitigating factor please let me know acceptable proofs that would be sufficient to drop this case.

They came back with:




It has now progressed to Charge Certificate.

Not keen on settling this as I pay a lot of tickets through the course of my business and this one is of a personal nature and strikes me as somewhat unfair. Of course if the advice is I'm in the wrong I will give up the fight and settle up.

Yes, I believe so. They refer to it in their correspondence so it's likely my office (company owned van) would have received it. If it would beneficial for me to try and locate it I should be able to find it.

No compelling reason apart from being extremely busy and possibly believing that having already submitted my thoughts on the pcn (on 2 occasions) my next chance to take action would be at charge cert stage.

If I've missed my chance then I will settle.

If there's still hope then I will gladly continue on.

Yes, I believe so. They refer to it in their correspondence so it's likely my office (company owned van) would have received it. If it would beneficial for me to try and locate it I should be able to find it.

At the moment (and as their letter says), you have no standing in the matter. How have you become aware of the Charge Certificate?

What is the Company policy with regard to PCNs?

What was date of the rejection letter?

What (if you know) is the date on the Charge Certificate?

Is the van the company's or leased (whose name & address is on the V5)?

Sorry to keep bombardinhg you with questions but once a CC is issued the whole process revolves around dates and who is the RK?

Oddly perhaps, it is to the RK's advantage if the NtO was not received.

Quote from: boschian on August 16, 2025, 11:01:08 am

Yes, I believe so. They refer to it in their correspondence so it's likely my office (company owned van) would have received it. If it would beneficial for me to try and locate it I should be able to find it.

At the moment (and as their letter says), you have no standing in the matter. How have you become aware of the Charge Certificate?

What is the Company policy with regard to PCNs?

What was date of the rejection letter?

What (if you know) is the date on the Charge Certificate?

Is the van the company's or leased (whose name & address is on the V5)?

Sorry to keep bombardinhg you with questions but once a CC is issued the whole process revolves around dates and who is the RK?

Oddly perhaps, it is to the RK's advantage if the NtO was not received.

Charge certificate arrived at the office in the post.

We usually pay PCNs unless there are mitigating circumstances in which case we'll appeal.

Timeline:

25th March 2025 - PCN Issued
1st April 2025 - PCN appealed via website by me personally with my personal details (not registered keeper address etc)
6th May 2025 - PCN appeal rejected - sent by email to my personal email address
30th May 2025  - Further appeal made via website by me with my personal details (my response suggests that the NTO has been received so it's likely it was received by the office, however I can't locate this)
14th July 2025 - Further response on my second appeal saying that NTO had been issued to registered keeper
4th August 2025 - Charge certificate issued to business address (with business name on the cerificate)

I will presume NTO was addressed to the company at the company address.

I think having learnt a thing or two about procedure in the past couple of hours I'll bite the bullet and pay this one.

Thank you for all your advice. Hopefully next time I visit I'll have a stronger case.

OP, our problem is that we can advise you that IF ****, then ****, but IF ***, then ****.

Only you know the reality behind the IFs, or at least you can try and find out.

The procedural position is that formal reps were not made, this was your error. Service of the NTO may not be inferred from your error, therefore IF a NTO cannot be located a Witness Statement could be submitted.