Hello,
I would appreciate your advice as to whether I have valid grounds to appeal a PCN I received today.
I was parked for less than a minute before the CEO approached my car and began issuing the PCN, and I was back at my car within 4 minutes of initially parking (I know this as I started my stopwatch before leaving the car - an old habit - and later verified this with my dash cam).
Firstly, I was really under the impression that there was an observation time of 5 minutes before a CEO would issue a ticket, so I was hoping to be in and out of there very quickly. However, shortly after getting this PCN I spoke to a separate CEO who was in the area, and later an Islington Parking Helper/representative over the phone, and they both advised me that there is no observation time for private/non-commercial cars in that area, which was new information to me.
Additionally, as an aside, given the fact that the lamp post with the parking details wasn't viewable from where I parked, I would have needed to walk away from the car to engage with it so it's possibly not unlikely the CEO would still have issued me with the PCN whilst I was attempting to pay anyway. I was in one of the leftmost bays, near to the motorcycle bay, and the nearest parking sign is about 5-6 car widths to the right.
Secondly, my primary reason for stopping was that I was in the area for work (as an independent contractor) and needed to collect keys from a nearby key collection point (specifically a KeyNest point located in Islington Green - Arsh Convenience, 338 Upper Street, London, N1 0PB). So, although my vehicle isn't 'commercial' as such (i.e. a delivery van or goods vehicle), my reason for being in the area was work-related (what's worse is that someone else had collected the keys I needed before I got there, so my stop wasn't even worthwhile).
Would an appeal based on my work-related reason for being there as well as the fact I had nearly no time to pay (given the fact the CEO came up to my car 20-30 seconds after I moved away from it) be valid, or is this a case where I bite the bullet and pay the discounted amount?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Photos of the PCN and the parking details on the nearby post linked below:
PCN:

Lamp Post with parking details:

GSV of the location:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/eppmvVLsr3oQmybu6Thank you,