Free Traffic Legal Advice

I bought and moved into a new house on 8th August and spent weeks going back and forth with my local council (who issued the PCNs) and MiPermit who issue the permits for my road. I didn't have my permit approved until 28th August and I received 7 PCNs during the period I was trying to arrange my permit. I challenged all the PCNs within 2 weeks but didn't hear anything until now regarding them. I did everything I needed to in order to get my permit but the flawed system and delays made it take weeks.

3 of the appeals were accepted and 4 were rejected. I'm deciding if I should just pay them now (£35 each) to avoid the full price fine or go to tribunal and risk the appeal being rejected and paying even more (£70 each).

This is the timeline of attempting to sort things including when the PCNs with rejected appeals were received - would I have any grounds to appeal my fines at tribunal?

8th August - Move into house and email local council for council tax number to arrange permit.
11th August - Receive reply that I can send evidence of house purchase instead.
12th August - 1st PCN received. Email reply not yet seen due to being at work all day.
13th August - I send evidence of my house purchase. No reply received regarding how to obtain physical permit.
19th August - Call made to MiPermit as no reply from council. Permit bought and confirmation email received. Visitor permits also purchased - although these take time to come as they are paper scratch cards.
20th August - 2nd PCN received at 9:51am - at this time I thought I had an active permit. Receive permit rejection email at 4pm, due to car not being registered to new address and V5C evidence being needed for emission-based half price permit.
21st August - Change of V5C address application completed. 3nd PCN received at 10:52am.
25th August - 4th PCN received - still unable to arrange appropriate priced permit without new V5C.
28th August - I finally receive new V5C and send to MiPermit. Permit is approved.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Unfortunately it is Somerset Council - they have outdated paper scratch card style visitor permits here, so we also had to wait for them to come in the post after they were ordered on 19/8. We weren't able to order any prior to this as it also required MiPermit access based on evidence of house purchase

Here is text from each of the PCN appeal rejection letters:

20/8:

• The Penalty Charge Notice was correctly served. The area in which you were parked is for permit holders
  only from 9am to 6pm, Mon-Sat. An unauthorised vehicle is not permitted to park in a Permit holders bay
  for any purpose, regardless of the length of time involved.
• It is the responsibility of the driver to acquaint themselves with the Parking Regulations and to ensure that
  the vehicle is not parked in contravention.
  I note in your challenge that you moved into your new property on 8th August 2025 and on this day you
  sent an email to Somerset council parking team requesting to be provided with a council tax reference
  number in order to arrange your parking permit and you had long delays waiting for a reply from the parking
  team and once you were able to get into your account you paid for a permit on 20th August, my application
  was rejected and you finally had your permit approved on 28th August.
• According to our records your permit application was rejected on 19/08/2025 therefore the vehicle should
  not have been parked in resident parking space. It is the driver’s responsibility to ensure their vehicle is
  parked in accordance with the parking regulations.
  As no permit was present within the vehicle or the database, the Penalty Charge Notice was correctly
  served for not having a valid permit at the location. It is the driver’s responsibility to ensure their vehicle has a valid permit to park in resident permit holders parking space.
  I therefore find that the Penalty Charge Notice was served correctly, and the reasons given are not
  accepted as grounds for the cancellation of this Penalty Charge Notice.
  

21/8:

• The Penalty Charge Notice was correctly served. The area in which you were parked is for resident permit
  holders only from 9am to 6pm, Mon-Sat. An unauthorised vehicle is not permitted to park in a Permit
  holders bay for any purpose, regardless of the length of time involved.
  It is the responsibility of the driver to acquaint themselves with the Parking Regulations and to ensure that
  the vehicle is not parked in contravention.
• You have stated in your challenge that you moved into your new property on 8th August 2025 and on this
  day you sent an email to Somerset council parking team requesting to be provided with a council tax
  reference number in order to arrange your parking permit and you had long delays waiting for a reply from
  the parking team and once you were able to get into your account you paid for a permit on 20th August,
  your application was rejected and you finally had your permit approved on 28th August.
  According to our records your permit application was rejected on 19/08/2025 therefore the vehicle should
  have been parked elsewhere. It is the driver’s responsibility to ensure their vehicle is parked in accordance
  with the parking regulations.
• As no permit was present within the vehicle or the database, the Penalty Charge Notice was correctly
  served for not having a valid permit. It is the driver’s responsibility to ensure their vehicle has a valid permit to park in resident permit holders parking space.
  I therefore find that the Penalty Charge Notice was served correctly, and the reasons given are not
  accepted as grounds for the cancellation of this Penalty Charge Notice.

25/8:

• The Penalty Charge Notice was correctly served. The area in which you were parked is for resident permit
  holders only from 9am to 6pm, Mon-Sat. An unauthorised vehicle is not permitted to park in a Permit
  holders bay for any purpose, regardless of the length of time involved.
  The vehicle was parked adjacent to the time plate stating the permit restriction as indicated by the red
  arrow in the photo above.
• It is the responsibility of the driver to acquaint themselves with the Parking Regulations and to ensure that the vehicle is not parked in contravention. You have stated in your challenge that you moved into your new  property on 8th August 2025 and on this day you sent an email to Somerset council parking team requesting to be provided with a council tax reference number in order to arrange your parking permit and you had long delays waiting for a reply from the parking team and once you were able to get into your account you paid for a permit on 20th August, your application was rejected and you finally had your permit approved on 28th August.
  Please note that in response to that email, you were directed to the Somerset Council website for all the
  relevant information about permits and application.
• You are also informed that the Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs) will check their hand-held devices for a
  valid permit online before issuing a Penalty.
  You left a note in the vehicle, but Civil Enforcement Officers are not permitted to refrain from serving PCNs
  on the basis that the driver has left a note in the vehicle. Leaving a note in a vehicle does not exempt
  motorists from parking restrictions.
• According to our records your permit application was rejected on 19/08/2025 therefore the vehicle should
  have been parked elsewhere. It is the driver’s responsibility to ensure their vehicle is parked in accordance
  with the parking regulations.
  Your application was originally rejected as there was “No proof of vehicle being registered to permit
  address” which is the responsibility of the Registered Keeper. Your permit was finally granted and valid
  from 28/08/2025.
• As no permit was present within the vehicle or the database, the Penalty Charge Notice was correctly
  served for not having a valid permit. It is the driver’s responsibility to ensure their vehicle has a valid permit to park in resident permit holders parking space.
  I therefore find that the Penalty Charge Notice was served correctly, and the reasons given are not
  accepted as grounds for the cancellation of this Penalty Charge Notice.

"According to our records your permit application was rejected on 19/08/2025" - this is incorrect as an email notification of this was not received until 4pm on 20/08/2025.


They have repeatedly said it is the driver's responsibility to ensure their vehicle has a valid permit. I understand I should have had a permit but I was entirely unable to obtain one due to their delays and did everything in my power to obtain one.